Cosmopolitan Archaeologies

Product Description

An important collection,
Cosmopolitan Archaeologies delves into the politics of contemporary archaeology in an increasingly complex international environment. The contributors explore the implications of applying the cosmopolitan ideals of obligation to others and respect for cultural difference to archaeological practice, showing that those ethics increasingly demand the rethinking of research agendas. While cosmopolitan archaeologies must be practiced in contextually specific ways, what unites and defines them is archaeologists’ acceptance of responsibility for the repercussions of their projects, as well as their undertaking of heritage practices attentive to the concerns of the living communities with whom they work. These concerns may require archaeologists to address the impact of war, the political and economic depredations of past regimes, the livelihoods of those living near archaeological sites, or the incursions of transnational companies and institutions.

The contributors describe various forms of cosmopolitan engagement involving sites that span the globe. They take up the links between conservation, natural heritage and ecology movements, and the ways that local heritage politics are constructed through international discourses and regulations. They are attentive to how communities near heritage sites are affected by archaeological fieldwork and findings, and to the complex interactions that local communities and national bodies have with international sponsors and universities, conservation agencies, development organizations, and NGOs. Whether discussing the toll of efforts to preserve biodiversity on South Africans living near Kruger National Park, the ways that UNESCO’s global heritage project universalizes the ethic of preservation, or the Open Declaration on Cultural Heritage at Risk that the Archaeological Institute of America sent to the U.S. government before the Iraq invasion, the contributors provide nuanced assessments of the ethical implications of the discursive production, consumption, and governing of other people’s pasts.
Contributors. O. Hugo Benavides, Lisa Breglia, Denis Byrne, Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh, Alfredo González-Ruibal, Ian Hodder, Ian Lilley, Jane Lydon, Lynn Meskell, Sandra Arnold Scham

Review

“What emerges out of these finely argued and selected essays is a reinvigorated sense of the applicability and importance of archaeology, beyond its subject boundaries. Functioning in an interdisciplinary manner each essay reaches out to philosophy, literary theory, politics, and economics, among other fields, to nourish a better understanding of cultural and global capital and flux.” - David S. Mora,
Ameriquests




“The range and quality of the case studies is impressive, and they are in fact very cosmopolitan in the sense that they include great diversity but still form a coherent whole. Lynn Meskell provides a lucid, well-written introduction. . . . One of the exceptional values of
Cosmopolitan Archaeologies is that it contains its own critique. . . . In the end, I cannot dismiss this volume as simply old wine in a new bottle, because the wine here is very, very good. These papers do an excellent job of critically considering the political nature of heritage and of archaeological practice. And, although such considerations are not new in archaeology, they have not become nearly commonplace enough.” - Randall H. McGuire,
Journal of Anthropological Research




“
Cosmopolitan Archaeologies is an interesting work and engages with many ideas of heritage management as well as illustrating how material culture and places are ascribed multiple meanings by different groups of people.” - Sarah Carr-Locke,
Muse




”New pathways that unsettle prevailing state-centric discourses of ownership, memory and history are urgently needed.
Cosmopolitanism Archaeologiesrepresents an important and thought-provoking addition to this program. Its encouragement to academi