Archaeology for “convivencia”, Archaeology after Saint Denis. A session for EAA 22 (Vilnius, 31 August - 4 September 2016)

Abstract

Can Archaeology contribute to “convivencia” in multicultural societies? Is Archaeology anyhow a mean to facilitate living together when multiple cultural identities mingle? Some of us think that the answer is YES. The day after the 13-N terrorist attacks in Paris, we thought what Archaeology could do to reinforce positive, even if conflictive, coexistence in multicultural societies. We prefer the Spanish term “convivencia” because this was the concept developed in mediaeval Iberian Peninsula to denominate the partially cooperative partly conflictual coexistence of Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. “Convivencia” means more than living together: it refers to active, conflictive but positive, coexistence between communities and actors in contexts of cultural heterogeneity. With this idea on mind, we proposed to organize a session in the next Annual Meeting of EAA (European Association of Archaeologists), to be held in Vilnius, Lithuania (Aug 31 –Set 4, 2016). The session is entitled “Archaeology for convivencia, Archaeology after Saint Denis”. We call any particular, team, entity or association, with ideas, initiatives, cases studies or experiences on this sort of action to present their contributions for discussion and for defining a suitable mode of action of Archaeology and archaeologists to produce positive interaction in multicultural environments, to rethink Archaeology as a form of Activism to build up “convivencia” through conflicting contexts. The topic is of the maximum relevance for the forthcoming future, in a context in which so many tensions de-assemble our societies. You can get the session statement on http://eaavilnius2016.lt/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/122.pdf and in the image attached to this post. Please submit your proposal through the link: https://www.eventure-online.com/eventure/welcome.form?type=abstract&congress=152_EAA&c=bd4350a3-56f9-46d1-8d66-514d76e0eb3c). The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2016. Please send this message to those people who you think might be interested. [Felipe Criado-Boado (Institute of Heritage Sciences - CSIC, Santiago de Compostela) and Kai Salas (INRAP, Paris)].