Please forward to any colleagues who might be interested --
CHAT 2005 (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory)
University College Dublin
Fri 18-Sun 20 November 2005
CALL FOR PAPERS
CHAT is a new archaeology conference group providing opportunities for
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-materialphilosophical
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 [log in to unmask] by August 1st 2005, and
to indicate the appropriate theme.
For information about the CHAT mailing list contact Dan Hicks -
[log in to unmask]
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