FF:PAPVB_35 The Archaeology of Colonialism

PAPVB_35 The Archaeology of Colonialism

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2013

Extent and Intensity

1/1/0. 3 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).

Teacher(s)

Maria Theresia Starzmann, Ph.D. (lecturer), Mgr. Inna Mateiciucová, Ph.D. (deputy)

Guaranteed by

prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Lucie Valášková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts

Timetable

Mon 18. 2. 9:10–12:25 K21, Tue 19. 2. 9:10–12:25 K21, Wed 20. 2. 8:20–11:35 K33, Thu 21. 2. 9:10–12:25 L32, Mon 25. 2. 9:10–12:25 K21, Tue 26. 2. 9:10–12:25 K21, Wed 27. 2. 8:20–11:35 K33, Thu 28. 2. 9:10–12:25 L32

Course Enrolment Limitations

The course is offered to students of any study field.

Course objectives

This seminar will look at the archaeology of colonialism in two ways. On the one hand, we will try to understand colonialism as a phenomenon that can be explored through material and other (textual, oral historical) remains in archaeological contexts. We will look at a variety of case studies of past colonial encounters in the Middle East, but also in Europe (the Mediterranean), Africa, Oceania, and North America. The goal will be to understand the processes and contexts of colonialism and its effects on past societies. The second part of the seminar analyzes colonialism as a concept and discursive practice that has concrete effects on our archaeological work. The goal is to understand how neo/colonialist processes contribute to the production of academic knowledge, historical archives, and archaeological facts. We will also take a critical look at how the legacy of colonialism continues to structure our relationship with descendant communities and other stakeholder groups we encounter during our archaeological fieldwork. The readings of the course explore theoretical and conceptual approaches toward colonialism in the social sciences as well as responses, such as post-colonial theory and de-colonial thinking. In addition, we look at a number of case studies that are grounded in archaeological, ethnographic, and historical sources.

Syllabus

1. Session: What is the Archaeology of Colonialism? 2. Colonial Entanglements: Colonization and Culture Contact 3. Local Responses to Colonial Encounters 4. The Materiality of Colonialism 5. The Archaeology of the Colonized 6. Complicating Colonialism: Beyond the Colonizer / Colonized Divide 7. Colonialism as a Racialized Project 8. Colonialism as Intimate Encounter 9. Remembering (and Forgetting) Colonialism 10. The Post-Colonial and De-Colonial Options

Literature

Hansen, Karen Tranberg. 1999. Second-hand clothing encounters in Zambia: global discourses, western commodities, and local histories. Africa 3: 343-365.
Mullins, Paul R. and Robert Paynter. 2000. Representing colonizers: An archaeology of creolization, ethnogenesis, and indigenous material culture among the Haida. HistoricalArchaeology 34(3):73-84.
Stoler, Ann Laura. 1989. “Making empire respectable: The politics of race and sexual morality in twentieth-century colonial cultures.”American Ethnologist 16(4):634-660.
Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press.
Voss, Barbara L. 2011. “Sexual effects: Postcolonial and queer perspectives on the archaeology of sexuality and empire.” In The Archaeology of Colonialism: Intimate Encounters and Sexual Effects, edited by Barbara L. Voss and Eleanor Conlin Casella
Stein, Gil. 2005. „Introduction: The comparative archaeology of colonial encounters.“ In Archaeology of Colonial Encounters: Comparative Perspectives, edited by Gil Stein, pp. 1-32. Santa Fe: SAR.
Dietler, Michael. 1998. “Consumption, agency, and cultural entanglement: Theoretical implications of a Mediterranean colonial encounter. ” In Studies in Culture Contact: Interaction, Culture Change, and Archaeology, edited by James G. Cusick, pp. 288-315
Silliman, Stephen W. 2005. Culture contact or colonialism? Challenges in the archaeology of Native North America. American Antiquity 70(1): 55-74.
Deagan, Kathleen. 2003. Colonial origins and colonial transformations in Spanish America.Historical Archaeology37(4):3-13.
Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. 1999. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books. (Chapter 8:“Twenty-five indigenous projects,” pp. 142-162

Teaching methods

This course is designed as a combined lecture / class discussion. In each session, I will provide some background material, which will be substituted by reading materials assigned for the course. In the class discussion, we will spend time identifying themes and issues relevant for the topic of the course, with the goal of taking a comparative approach between readings. All class participants will have free access to all course materials, which include the course syllabus, course announcements, and the assigned course readings. Texts for the class will be made available in advance in the form of open access online readings or PDF-formatted texts.

Assessment methods

The course grade will be based on in-class participation (60% of the final grade) and a written paper (10 pages) (40% of the final grade), which will be organized as a response paper to a discussion question. Papers are due after the end of the class (date TBA). The goal of the paper is to demonstrate that students are able to discuss a complex set of questions in a concise and well-structured manner and that they can draw on a critical mass of texts in developing their conclusions. Attendance at the lectures is 70%.

FF:PAPVB_35 The Archaeology of Colonialism - Course Information

PAPVB_35 The Archaeology of Colonialism

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