[Discussion] Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

CHAT 2005 (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory)
University College Dublin
Fri 18-Sun 20 November 2005

CALL FOR PAPERS
CHAT is a new conference group providing opportunities for 
interdisciplinary and
theoretically-informed dialogue to develop among researchers in the 
fields of
later historical archaeology and the archaeology of the contemporary 
world. The
inaugural meeting was held at the Department of Archaeology and 
Anthropology,
Bristol University, in November 2003 -
http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Archaeology/events/chat.html -
and the second meeting was at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History,
University of Leicester, in November 2004
http://www.le.ac.uk/ar/chat2004/index.htm

CHAT 2005 in Dublin has three themes:

Polite and vernacular culture
The concepts of polite and vernacular exist in a relationship of
contradistinction: the use of one implies the opposition of the other. 
Polite
culture is presented as knowledgeable and refined, a system of carefully
designed conventions of etiquette. Vernacular culture, by contrast, is 
presented
as instinctive and 'native', even vulgar. Most archaeologists would 
regard so
essentialised a model of cultural polarisation as philosophically suspect at
best and morally indefensible at worst. Yet, a polite-vernacular binarism
demonstrably played a very significant social role in the past, and arguably
continues to play a role today. We invite papers that evaluate these 
concepts of
polite and vernacular, individually or as a pair, within the archaeological
record or even within archaeology's historiography.

Archaeologies of inequality
The interest that many of us have in the archaeology of inequality is rooted
intellectually in the historical-material philosophical tradition that 
springs
from Marx. It is also rooted in our moral sensibilities as human beings,
specifically in our emotional responses to those who suffer as a 
consequence of
the social world's political and economic imbalances. We invite papers that
explore the manifestations of inequality - or even the non-manifestations of
equality - in the past and present, or that consider the potential of
archaeology-as-praxis to effect any meaningful, positive, change within the
contemporary world.

Neo-colonialism, post-colonialism
This session revisits but expands a theme of CHAT in Bristol. The worlds 
that
interest us, whether we are historical archaeologists or archaeologists 
of the
contemporary, have been shaped by experiences of colonialism in the 
past, and,
surely indisputably, are still being shaped by forms of colonialism in the
present. In this session we invite responses to two sets of questions. 
First,
what is an archaeology of postcolonialism, of neocolonialism? What
manifestations of these 'conditions' can be worked on by archaeologists?
Secondly, to what extent can the writing of the archaeology of (and 
indeed the
writing of archaeology within) former colonial areas be understood as a
postcolonial exercise? And, given that the concept of 'global' to which many
historical archaeologists subscribe is actually a feature of Western 
thought,
can the writing of global-scaled archaeologies of the historical and
contemporary worlds be construed a form of intellectual neo-colonialism?

Potential contributors are requested to send proposed topics and 
abstracts (150
words) to Tadhg O'Keeffe tadhg.okeeffe@ucd.ie by August 1st 2005, and to
indicate the appropriate theme.

For information about the CHAT mailing list contact Dan Hicks
Dan.Hicks@bris.ac.uk

Dan Hicks
Archaeology & Anthropology
43 Woodland Road
University of Bristol
BRISTOL. BS8 1UU. UK

Email: dan.hicks@bris.ac.uk

Visit the website at http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/events/chat.html