 |
 |
Tadhg O'Keefe and I are seeking papers for a WAC6 session titled Home and Away: Archaeologies of Diaspora (see below for abstract and themes). WAC6 takes place in Dublin, 29th June - 4th July 2008. Information about the conference can be found at: http://www.ucd.ie/wac-6/ If you are interested in contributing to the session please send us your title and abstract by 30th November 2007 at the latest. Abstracts should be no more than 150 words. Please include your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, and the name and address of your college / university etc. We will select papers on the basis of the abstracts. We hope to publish the session after the conference and with this in mind we may request speakers to produce papers for pre-circulation. Home and Away: Archaeologies of Diaspora Stephen A. Brighton, University of Maryland Tadhg O¹Keeffe, University College Dublin Diaspora is a contested term. It has historical connotations of victimization and trauma, consequent on intolerable social and economic conditions created by colonialism. Where once it was used with respect to the history of Jewish population dispersal, today the term is employed in reference to numerous trans-national immigrant or migrant groups, especially over the last few centuries. The term¹s use is rarely conditioned by critical evaluation on a macro-scale, or by theoretically-informed interrogation in specific, micro-scale, social-historical contexts. It is a term that is often and obviously overused in narratives and analyses of population movements, and of trans-national community networks and identities. Structuring this WAC theme of Archaeologies of Diaspora are questions concerning the application of diaspora theory to the study of material culture in its broadest archaeological sense. How have diasporic groups been studied in different places around the world? Is there social and economic diversity within a diasporic group? Is a comparative analysis of their experience useful? How are social identities transmitted and transformed in the material culture of diasporic groups? What material and social changes occur in the host group upon contact with diasporic groups? What differences arise from the specificities of place, and the timing and/or motivation of dispersal? What is the relationship to homeland? How does a diaspora affect those who remain in the homeland? Diaspora theory provides a framework within which archaeologists can investigate diverse communities as leave their homelands in different circumstances and under different conditions, as they are received in new places of settlement, and as their social identities are reconfigured in the new lands. It allows us evaluate their real or imaginary/imagined relationships to the people and heritage left behind in the homeland. The sessions we propose for this theme are Diaspora Theory and Practice in Archaeology, Diaspora and the Homeland, Diaspora and The New Place of Settlement, Comparative Diasporas. Stephen A. Brighton Assistant Professor Department of Anthropology Rm 0132 Woods Hall Affiliate, Center for Heritage Resource Studies University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 phone: 301-405-3700 fax: 301-314-8305 email: [log in to unmask] -------------------------- contemp-hist-arch is a list for news and events in contemporary and historical archaeology, and for announcements relating to the CHAT conference group. ------- For email subscription options see: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/archives/contemp-hist-arch.html ------- For CHAT meetings see: http://www.bris.ac.uk/archanth/events/chat.html --------------------------