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A session organized by Alfredo González-Ruibal (Complutense University of Madrid) and Ashish Chadha (Yale University).
The relationship between archaeology and modernity is a growing concern for archaeologists. On the one hand, archaeologists ask how the discipline is involved in the construction of modern categories of thought, knowledge and society? Can modernist divides and prejudices be bypassed or, even as many hope, overcome? What is the role of archaeology in processes of totalitarianism, nationalism, colonialism, or racism? On the other hand, historical archaeologists have been exploring the origins and expansion of modern societies since the late 15th century through their material remains. In so doing, they are helping to build a different image of the modern world, one that pays more attention to everyday practices, long-term processes, subaltern groups, and the local appropriations of global products.
The aim of this session is to study the dark side of late modernity (or supermodernity) by probing the negative outcomes of modern categories of thought and action through the archaeological traces they leave behind. We would like to focus on the contemporary past (20th-21st centuries) and high-modernist ideologies (sensu James Scott), because the failures of modernity have been greater and more tragic during the last hundred years—from totalitarian regimes and genocides to ecological disasters. Indeed, such failures became a matter of deep public concern at the beginning of the twenty-first century. However, we will consider papers dealing with other modern periods whose topic is strongly related to the issues discussed in the session. With an archaeological gaze, we will address the material remains of failed and destructive modernities: concentration camps, prisons, battlefields, nuclear testing grounds, new killing technologies, projects of social engineering (model farms, resettlement schemes, modernist cities), totalitarian architecture, ghettos, colonial settlements, industrial failures, mass graves, human-driven ecological disasters, etc.
This session will provide occasion to debate some key questions: What is the role of a critical archaeology that faces the abuses of modernity? Can we use our discipline to raise public awareness on the failures and crimes of high modernism? What should be the terms of our political involvement? How should we carry out this sort of archaeology? How is the negative or ambivalent heritage of late modernity to be managed? We welcome papers which address particular case studies, propose methodologies for studying the traces of destructive modernities, or offer new theoretical insights.
If you want to participate in this session, please send an email to Ashish Chada or Alfredo González-Ruibal no later than February 14th.
For more information on the conference:
WAC-6 2008 Dublin