Recent anthropological research in Africa has been buzzing with the question of “futures”. In times of economic uncertainty and global volatility, in areas of the world struck by widening inequalities, poverty and risk, where people have been compelled to try their luck abroad, the future is a pressing concern. It is also a key ethnographic prism for seeing how Africans (re)imagine time, expectations and possibility in late modernity. As recently pointed out by Janet Roitman, these conversations have acquired salience in relation to a global mood of “crisis”. Crisis, Roitman argues, does not mark an objective break with a normative “before”, a new experiential condition; rather, it is a narrative that imparts new moral weight to history in the present, and thus places a distinct spin on what and how futures can be imagined. Moved by this landscape of concerns, this article wonders what archaeology might contribute to contemporary feelings about “the future” in Africa. How does a look back, and a look forward from the past, help us to tease apart the temporalities that have shaped African worlds in the long term? How might a look at the kinds of time nested in material culture recast ongoing reflections on the present and future in Africa? How might it reframe the terms – crisis, melancholia, nostalgia, hope – in which continental futures are envisioned today? I hope to address these questions by reviewing recent archaeological research in rural West Africa and drawing on my own study of the hopes and anxieties that have framed peasant social expectations in Senegal over the past 300 years. My argument, though preliminary, is that examining Africa’s future pasts – material experiences and expectations of time in recent history – offers a lively contestation of the temporal frameworks into which the continent and its futures have been written.
{"title":"African Futures Past: Material Horizons of Peasant Expectations in Senegal","authors":"F. Richard","doi":"10.1558/JCA.34197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.34197","url":null,"abstract":"Recent anthropological research in Africa has been buzzing with the question of “futures”. In times of economic uncertainty and global volatility, in areas of the world struck by widening inequalities, poverty and risk, where people have been compelled to try their luck abroad, the future is a pressing concern. It is also a key ethnographic prism for seeing how Africans (re)imagine time, expectations and possibility in late modernity. As recently pointed out by Janet Roitman, these conversations have acquired salience in relation to a global mood of “crisis”. Crisis, Roitman argues, does not mark an objective break with a normative “before”, a new experiential condition; rather, it is a narrative that imparts new moral weight to history in the present, and thus places a distinct spin on what and how futures can be imagined. Moved by this landscape of concerns, this article wonders what archaeology might contribute to contemporary feelings about “the future” in Africa. How does a look back, and a look forward from the past, help us to tease apart the temporalities that have shaped African worlds in the long term? How might a look at the kinds of time nested in material culture recast ongoing reflections on the present and future in Africa? How might it reframe the terms – crisis, melancholia, nostalgia, hope – in which continental futures are envisioned today? I hope to address these questions by reviewing recent archaeological research in rural West Africa and drawing on my own study of the hopes and anxieties that have framed peasant social expectations in Senegal over the past 300 years. My argument, though preliminary, is that examining Africa’s future pasts – material experiences and expectations of time in recent history – offers a lively contestation of the temporal frameworks into which the continent and its futures have been written.","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.34197","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42956916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The future-making efforts currently unfolding in Detroit have direct implications on the extent to which the city’s pasts will be included in the narratives of generations to come. This essay evaluates current tensions between developers and preservation-oriented stakeholders. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for considering how archaeological initiatives and anthropological treatments of heritage might fit within revitalization efforts. Examples of grassroots, community-led projects undertaken by archaeologists and local partners demonstrate the potential for archaeology to contribute to the maintenance of community heritage and the shape of the city’s future.
{"title":"Detroit 139: Archaeology and the Future-Making of a Post- Industrial City","authors":"K. Ryzewski","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33835","url":null,"abstract":"The future-making efforts currently unfolding in Detroit have direct implications on the extent to which the city’s pasts will be included in the narratives of generations to come. This essay evaluates current tensions between developers and preservation-oriented stakeholders. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for considering how archaeological initiatives and anthropological treatments of heritage might fit within revitalization efforts. Examples of grassroots, community-led projects undertaken by archaeologists and local partners demonstrate the potential for archaeology to contribute to the maintenance of community heritage and the shape of the city’s future.","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33835","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47534321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article reorients archaeology’s approach to things by acknowledging the moment of the encounter with the past as one of speculation. Years of scientific claim, research design and methodology place the agentive nature of research in the hands of the archaeologist: we go to the site to find the past. However, if we acquiesce to the possibility that antiquity approaches the archaeologist (rather than vice versa), then that forces us to contend with the contemporary nature of the encounter. This article considers the efficacy, urgency, and poetics of decolonization.
{"title":"Archaeological Encounters: The Role of the Speculative in Decolonial Archaeology","authors":"Uzma Z. Rizvi","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33866","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33866","url":null,"abstract":"This article reorients archaeology’s approach to things by acknowledging the moment of the encounter with the past as one of speculation. Years of scientific claim, research design and methodology place the agentive nature of research in the hands of the archaeologist: we go to the site to find the past. However, if we acquiesce to the possibility that antiquity approaches the archaeologist (rather than vice versa), then that forces us to contend with the contemporary nature of the encounter. This article considers the efficacy, urgency, and poetics of decolonization.","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33866","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44836084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There continues to be much archaeological discussion concerning temporality and the complex relationship between the past and present, but less attention is paid to how the future figures into archaeological thought, method, and interpretation. This introductory essay provides the theoretical framework for an archaeological consideration of futurity, an approach that takes seriously the expectations and imaginations of people in the past while also recognizing the urgency of our present here-and-now. An archaeology of critical futurities opens the discipline to potentialities of action, to imagine worlds otherwise in the past and to strive for change in the future. By broadening archaeological approaches to time to include futures, authors in this collection demonstrate the global potential for an archaeology poised for action in addition to exploring how the future is a critical component of understanding the past and present. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE
{"title":"Futurity, Time, and Archaeology","authors":"M. Reilly","doi":"10.1558/JCA.36830","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.36830","url":null,"abstract":"There continues to be much archaeological discussion concerning temporality and the complex relationship between the past and present, but less attention is paid to how the future figures into archaeological thought, method, and interpretation. This introductory essay provides the theoretical framework for an archaeological consideration of futurity, an approach that takes seriously the expectations and imaginations of people in the past while also recognizing the urgency of our present here-and-now. An archaeology of critical futurities opens the discipline to potentialities of action, to imagine worlds otherwise in the past and to strive for change in the future. By broadening archaeological approaches to time to include futures, authors in this collection demonstrate the global potential for an archaeology poised for action in addition to exploring how the future is a critical component of understanding the past and present. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.36830","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46248914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contesting Temporalities in a Runaway Slave Town: Mexico, 1769 to the Present","authors":"A. Amaral","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33824","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33824","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33824","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46031031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"History, Capitalism, and Postcolonial Identities: Notes on Archaeologies of the Future","authors":"O. H. Benavides","doi":"10.1558/JCA.36749","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.36749","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.36749","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45434022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Material and Intangible Interventions as Future- Making Heritage at Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin","authors":"L. McAtackney","doi":"10.1558/JCA.34566","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.34566","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.34566","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43182671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Future of Archaeology in the Age of Presentism","authors":"L. Olivier","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33674","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33674","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33674","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46554130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the provisional label of the “Anthropocene”, this article trains its lens on some of the more-than-monstrous things that have revealed themselves in our calamitous times. It raises questions about how archaeologists are to apprehend and approach objects that differ in scale, speed, makeup, and efficacy from anything our field has ever dealt with. But rather than honing its analytical edge exclusively with the latest science, it also ventures in another direction to explore some of the powers of art by considering the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynksy. Finally, it makes a few closing remarks on the role of our profession in this new archaeological era.
{"title":"Hypanthropos: On Apprehending and Approaching That Which is in Excess of Monstrosity, with Special Consideration given to the Photography of Edward Burtynsky","authors":"Christopher L. Witmore","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33819","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33819","url":null,"abstract":"Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the provisional label of the “Anthropocene”, this article trains its lens on some of the more-than-monstrous things that have revealed themselves in our calamitous times. It raises questions about how archaeologists are to apprehend and approach objects that differ in scale, speed, makeup, and efficacy from anything our field has ever dealt with. But rather than honing its analytical edge exclusively with the latest science, it also ventures in another direction to explore some of the powers of art by considering the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynksy. Finally, it makes a few closing remarks on the role of our profession in this new archaeological era.","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33819","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46813284","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Archaeology is a process for, at minimum, constructing history from the material record. The decisions about what to use to create that history is unavoidably political. This political act primarily serves to construct and enforce the power of the state, although it can be used to contest it. Prefiguration, emerging from anarchist theory and parallel social movements, can be understood not simply as a radical practice, but also as an understanding of how history is constructed. It can be used to explain how history is constructed from past and contemporary archaeological decisions as well as the world and socio-political organizations that future history will naturalize.
{"title":"Constructing the Future History: Prefiguration as Historical Epistemology and the Chronopolitics of Archaeology","authors":"Lewis Borck","doi":"10.1558/JCA.33560","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/JCA.33560","url":null,"abstract":"Archaeology is a process for, at minimum, constructing history from the material record. The decisions about what to use to create that history is unavoidably political. This political act primarily serves to construct and enforce the power of the state, although it can be used to contest it. Prefiguration, emerging from anarchist theory and parallel social movements, can be understood not simply as a radical practice, but also as an understanding of how history is constructed. It can be used to explain how history is constructed from past and contemporary archaeological decisions as well as the world and socio-political organizations that future history will naturalize.","PeriodicalId":54020,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Archaeology","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1558/JCA.33560","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42716386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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