I do think that Maresi has a good point here, though I am not sure whether we
agree on all aspects. My view is that looting - whatever are the dynamics that
have led to it - should rightly be of our concern, but it is important to see
it in its political and social context. It is a typical reaction of many
archaeologists - even in the face of a human tragedy of large scale proportions
- to be solely worried about the conservation of material heritage, as if their
critical thought and social responsibility could and should not go beyond that.
I think that a more helpful approach would be to go beyond the surface of the
heritage destruction to analyse and - wherever appropriate - condemn and
actively oppose the forces that have led to such deterioration of a human
society. It is this latter after all that is the ultimate cause of the violent
clashes, executions, killings, brutality, tyranny  as well as desrespectful
attack on the wide range of elements that are treasured by contemporary as well
as past societies and represent symbols of their identities - and which of
course include archaeological objects.

-- 
Umberto Albarella
Department of Archaeology
University of Sheffield
Northgate House
West Street
Sheffield S1 4ET
United Kingdom
Telephone: (+) 44 (0) 114 22 22 943 
Fax: (+) 44 (0) 114 27 22 563 
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/albarella.html
For Archaeologists for Global Justice (AGJ) see:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/global-justice.html

"only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned 
and the last fish been caught we will realise we cannot eat money"


Quoting Maria T Starzmann <[log in to unmask]>:

> Dear all,
> 
> I decided to wait a bit before responding to this post, in the hope that
> someone else may have a similar concern as I do, but so far there is
> astonishingly little political analysis that came with the typical
> archaeologist's response to looting in the context of political uprisings.
> 
> The response is typical and unfortunately not surprising in its resorting to
> state power and, in fact, imperial power. Why, I would like to ask, is it
> that an archaeologist "has already contacted US Govt/state dept officials,
> ... The Archaeological Institute of America [!], ..." to act in Egypt and on
> behalf of ... whom? It seems to have become common practice to turn to the
> eternal superpower for help, instead of analyzing the structural (and also
> much more direct) complicity of the US government in the brutal politics of
> the Mubarak regime, which has for many years been a convenient placeholder
> for US economic interests, for keeping the so-called 'post'-colonial status
> quo in Northern Africa as oppressive and disenfranchising as intended by the
> former colonizers.
> 
> Ok, many of us ('the archaeologists') may be of the opinion that heritage
> protection is an absolute goal, under all circumstances, because it contains
> what can almost be called a 'humanitarian' mission (I use the term
> 'humanitarian' with utmost caution, if not ironically, because there is a
> contradiction at the heart of humanitarianism that makes violence its
> necessary precondition -- so or similarly, of course, formulated by Slavoj
> Zizek). However, there is a specifically white Euro- American and as such a
> fundamentally corrupt logic behind a lot of the 'protect heritage!' ideology
> that revolves around the idea of universal access to cultural heritage: that
> is, the idea that 'we' have to save 'our' heritage from 'them' (and don't
> let yourself be deceived that 'we' have long managed to transcend the 'us'
> vs. 'them' dichotomy of anthropological 'othering,' far from it!).
> Structurally similar examples can be found everywhere in colonialist /
> imperialist encounters: take Afghanistan, for example, where 'the West' did
> not only have to save the cultural heritage from its destruction by the
> Taliban (why from the Taliban? and why not talk about the destruction of
> people / families / mothers / children by US bombs?!), but even more so --
> white men came to save brown women from brown men (as stated by Abu-Lughod
> in a 1993 article). Historically, the protection of cultural heritage is
> almost always embedded in a larger framework of imperialist encounters --
> encounters that reach deep into the intimate aspects of life.
> 
> Today I read a brief article by a Rami Khouri on 'The Arab Freedom Epic'
> where he writes, "It is fascinating but quite provincial to focus attention
> -- as much of the Western media is doing -- on whether Facebook drove these
> revolts ..." -- I am not going to go on a rant about Facebook here as well,
> but I think that we need a more thorough political discourse than one that
> is limited by the policies of US state institutions on the one hand and the
> false consciousness of 'free speech' propagated by corporate mass media on
> the other.
> 
> Maresi Starzmann
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:31 PM, Allison Cuneo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> > Apologies for cross-posting-
> >
> > This is an update from Sarah Parcak, a specialist in Egyptian archaeology
> > from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  This is some of the news
> she
> > is getting out of Egypt, and the reports are disheartening...
> >
> > She has already contacted US Govt/state dept officials, people involved in
> > protecting global heritage, The Archaeological Institute of America, and
> > academics, asking them to set customs and other agencies on "high alert".
> >
> > If anyone has any further information about the situation in Egypt please
> > share.  The hope is to raise awareness and get more concrete information.
> >
> > Thank you all.
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Sarah H Parcak <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 10:42 AM
> > Subject: Major looting now occuring in Egypt-help needed
> >
> >
> > Dear All:
> >
> >    Things are escalating.  I just received this information directly (on
> > Facebook) from Egyptologists and members of the Supreme Council for
> > Antiquities (SCA) who are witnessing the situation:
> >
> > "Verified by Mohammad Megahed: Immense damages to Abusir and Saqqara, all
> > magazines and tombs which were sealed were entered last night. Only
> Imhotep
> > Museum and adjacent central magazines protected by the military. In Abusir
> > all tombs opened. large gangs digging day and night everywhere"
> >
> > The damage is *vast*.
> >
> > It seems that some of the storage magazines at South Saqqara and Abusir
> > have been looted-hard to say how much was taken and the extent of the
> > robbing.  SCA representatives are only today able to check on the
> > museums/storage magazines, but early reports suggest major looting.  If
> you
> > all could please contact anyone who can help and put them on "high alert"
> > for Old Kingdom remains and Egyptian antiquities in general, and please
> > spread the word to law enforcement officials worldwide.  Egyptian looters
> > (who may be encouraged by outside Egypt entities) may try to use the
> general
> > confusion to get things out of the country.
> >
> > Other bad news: prisons in Qena and Armant (next to Luxor) have been
> > emptied, so people fear major looting will occur in that region.
> >
> > Reports still abound for major looting in the Alexandria Museum---but
> those
> > reports are hard to confirm.  The violence has been worse in Alexandria,
> and
> > there have been few police reports there.
> >
> > I have posted this on Facebook to the Restore + Save the Egyptian Museum!
> > page.
> >
> > I will continue to update you as I get more information.  I am not sure if
> > the Italians can send the Carabinieri...anything would help.
> >
> > Things appear to be getting very bad, and this suggests they will get much
> > worse.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Sarah
> >
> > Sarah H. Parcak, PhD, FSA
> > Assistant Professor, Dept. of History and Anthropology
> > Director, Laboratory for Global Observation
> > University of Alabama at Birmingham
> > 1401 University Blvd
> > Birmingham, AL 35294
> > Phone: (205) 996-7982
> > Fax:     (205) 996-7977
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Maria Theresia Starzmann
> Department of Anthropology
> SUNY Binghamton
> Binghamton, NY 13902-6000
> USA
>