Debate
PhDebates session: On (Pre/Post)-Colonialism in Archaeology
- Date
- Thursday 29 September 2016
- Time
- Location
-
Van Steenis
Einsteinweg 2
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- E001
In this PhDebates session, we examine the position of post-colonial praxis within contemporary archaeological approaches. Moving beyond individual research areas and nationalities, we would like to critically consider how post-colonial our approaches actually are. Considering the diversity of socio-economic and political landscapes in which archaeological research is carried out, a re-evaluation of the basic assumptions of our discipline is increasingly important. Given the history of archaeology, we view (post)colonialism as an important methodological framework. Some of the questions we will raise in this debate are:
- Is colonialism over in the countries where we carry out research?
- How does archaeological research empirically separate itself from reproducing a colonialist practice?
- How do we deal with contradictory or unvoiced opinions of the people living in “our” archaeological research areas?
- How can archaeology promote post-colonialist thinking?
- Does this debate even need to occur, or have we moved beyond our colonial past.
Guest speaker
Dr. Andrzej Antczak - Can we ever be pre-colonial?
PhD speakers
Eduardo Herrera Malatesta – America is the name of the whole continent! On implicit and subtle colonialist thinking
Maria Patricia Ordoñez - Museums and the Postcolonial: clashes of thought and practice when addressing collections of human remains