Abstract
Working in conflict and post-conflict environments presents a number of distinctive challenges for archaeologists. Elements of archaeological practice that are usually thought of as reasonably routine (such as safety), can become extremely problematic. Meanwhile the aspects of archaeological work that are generally understood to be problematic, such as the recovery of human remains and working with indigenous communities, are imbued with even greater significance and risk. Archaeologies of violence transform critical practices from an intellectual exercise into a practical necessity. In this context it is reasonable to argue that archaeologies of violence require a uniquely comprehensive and critical approach to ethics. In this chapter we review some crucial topics that will be discussed throughout the volume, such as types of violence, temporality, the relationship with communities and the general responsibilities of archaeologists working in conflict zones.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allhoff, F. (2011). Physicians at war: Lessons for archaeologists? In P. Stone (Ed.), Cultural heritage, ethics, and the military (pp. 43–54). Woodbridge, England: Boydell.
Arnold, B. (1990). The past as propaganda: Totalitarian archaeology in Nazi Germany. Antiquity, 64(244), 464–478.
Bernbeck, R. (2008). Structural violence in archaeology. Archaeologies, 4(3), 390–413.
Bernbeck, R., & Pollock, S. (1996). Ayodhya, archaeology, and identity. Current Anthropology, 37(1), 138–142.
Bernbeck, R., & Pollock, S. (2007). “Grabe, wo du stehst!” An archaeology of perpetrators. In Y. Hamilakis & P. Duke (Eds.), Archaeology and capitalism: From ethics to politics (pp. 217–233). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Bevernage, B. (2008). Time, presence, and historical injustice. History and Theory, 47(2), 149–167.
Birth, K. (2008). The creation of coevalness and the danger of homochronism. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 14(1), 3–20.
Blau, S. (2014). Working as a forensic archaeologist and/or anthropologist in post-conflict contexts: A consideration of professional responsibilities to the missing, the dead and their relatives. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P., & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to reflexive sociology. Cambridge, England: Polity Press.
Carman, J., & Carman, P. (2006). Bloody meadows: Investigating landscapes of battle. Stroud, England: History Press.
Colls, C. S. (2012). Holocaust archaeology: Archaeological approaches to landscapes of Nazi genocide and persecution. Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 7(2), 70–104.
Colwell-Chanthaphonh, C., & Ferguson, T. J. (2006). Trust and archaeological practice: Towards a framework of virtue ethics. In C. Scarre & G. Scarre (Eds.), The ethics of archaeology: Philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice (pp. 115–130). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Congram, D. (2014). Cognitive dissonance and the military-archaeology complex. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Crossland, Z. (2000). Buried lives: Forensic archaeology and the disappeared in Argentina. Archaeological Dialogues, 7(2), 146–159.
Curtis, J. (2009). Relations between archaeologists and the military in the case of Iraq. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 19, 2–8.
Derrida, J. (1994). Specters of Marx: The state of the debt, the work of mourning, and the New International. New York, NY: Routledge
Dezhamkhooy, M., Yazdi, L. P., & Garazhian, O. (2014). All our findings are under their boots! The monologue of violence in Iranian archaeology. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Domanska, E. (2005). Toward the Archaeontology of the dead body. Rethinking History, 9(4), 389–413.
Fabian, J. (1983). Time and the other: How anthropology makes its object. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ferrándiz, F. (2006). The return of Civil War ghosts: The ethnography of exhumations in contemporary Spain. Anthropology Today, 22(3), 7–12.
Fiorato, V., Boylston, A., & Knüsel, C. (Eds.). (2000). Blood red roses: The archaeology of a mass grave from the Battle of Towton AD 1461. Oxford, England: Oxbow.
Flatman, J. (2007). The origins and ethics of maritime archaeology—Part 1. Public Archaeology, 6(2), 77–97.
Giblin, J. (2014). Archaeological ethics and violence in post-genocide Rwanda. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Gilead, I., Haimi, Y., & Mazurek, W. (2009). Excavating Nazi extermination centres. Present Pasts, 1, 10–39.
González-Ruibal, A. (2007). Making things public: Archaeologies of the Spanish Civil War. Public Archaeology, 6(4), 203–226.
González-Ruibal, A., Sahle, Y., & Ayán, X. (2011). A social archaeology of colonial war in Ethiopia. World Archaeology, 43(1), 40–65.
Goodhand, J. (2000). Research in conflict zones: Ethics and accountability. Forced Migration Review 8, 12–15.
Hamilakis, Y. (1999). La trahison des archéologues? Archaeological practice as intellectual activity in postmodernity. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 12(1), 60–79.
Hamilakis, Y. (2003). Iraq, stewardship and “the record:” An ethical crisis for archaeology. Public Archaeology, 3, 104–111.
Hamilakis, Y., & Duke, P. (Eds.). (2007). Archaeology and capitalism: From ethics to politics. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Hardy, S. (2014). Virtues impracticable and extremely difficult: The human rights of subsistence diggers. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Heinz, M. (2008). Archaeological research in conflict areas: Practice and responsibilities. Archaeologies, 4(3), 460–470.
Hollowell, J. (2006). Moral arguments on subsistence digging. In C. Scarre & G. Scarre (Eds.), The ethics of archaeology: Philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice (pp. 69–93). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Innerarity, D. (2001). Ética de la hospitalidad. Barcelona, Spain: Península.
International Dual Loyalty Working Group, Physicians for Human Rights (US), University of Cape Town School of Public Health & Primary Health Care. (2008). Dual loyalty and human rights in health professional practice. Proposed guidelines & institutional mechanisms. International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New , 41:15–38.
Iregren, E. (2004). Humans in wrecks: An ethical discussion on marine archaeology, exhibitions and scuba diving. In H. Karlsson (Ed.), Swedish archaeologists on ethics (pp. 265–286). Lindome, Sweden: Bricoleur.
Jorgensen, J. G. (1971). On ethics and anthropology. Current Anthropology, 12(3), 321–334.
Karlsson, H. (Ed.). (2004). Swedish archaeologists on ethics. Lindome, Sweden: Bricoleur.
Kola, A. (2000). Bełżec, the Nazi camp for Jews in the light of archaeological sources: Excavations 1997-1999. Warsaw: Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom.
López-Mazz, J. M. (2014). Archaeology of historic conflicts, colonial oppression and political violence in Uruguay. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Mackenzie, S. (2011). Illicit deals in cultural objects as crimes of the powerful. Crime, Law and Social Change, 56(2), 133–153.
Matsuda, D. (1998). The ethics of archaeology, subsistence digging, and artifact looting in Latin America: Point muted counterpoint. International Journal of Cultural Property, 7(1), 87–97.
Meskell, L., & Pels, P. (Eds.). (2005). Embedding ethics. Oxford, England: Berg.
Moshenska, G. (2008). Ethics and ethical critique in the archaeology of modern conflict. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 41(2), 159–175.
Moshenska, G. (2009). Contested pasts and community archaeologies: Public engagement in the archaeology of modern conflict. In N. Forbes, R. Page, & G. Pérez (Eds.), Europe’s deadly century: Perspectives on 20th century conflict heritage (pp. 73–79). London: English Heritage.
Moshenska, G. (2013). Conflict. In P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison, & A. Piccini (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the contemporary world (pp. 351–363). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
Moshenska, G. (2014). The ethics of public engagement in the archaeology of modern conflict. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Olsen, B., Shanks, M., Webmoor, T., & Witmore, C. (2012). Archaeology: The discipline of things. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Pluciennik, M. (2001). Introduction: The responsibilities of archaeologists. In M. Pluciennik (Ed.), The responsibilities of archaeologists: Archaeology and ethics (pp. 1–8). Oxford, England: Archaeopress.
Pollock, S., & Bernbeck, R. (2014). A gate to a darker world: Excavating at the Tempelhof airport (Berlin). In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Price, J. (2006). Orphan heritage: Issues in managing the heritage of the Great War in Northern France and Belgium. In T. Pollard & I. Banks (Eds.), Past tense: Studies in the archaeology of conflict (pp. 181–196). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Price, J. (2009). Response to “relations between archaeologists and the military in the case of Iraq.”. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 19, 9–11.
Pringle, H. (2006). The master plan: Himmler’s scholars and the Holocaust. London: Fourth Estate.
Renshaw, L. (2011). Exhuming loss: Memory, materiality and mass graves of the Spanish Civil War. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Runia, E. (2006). Presence. History and Theory, 45(1), 1–29.
Rush, L. (Ed.). (2010). Archaeology, cultural property and the military. Woodbridge, England: Boydell.
Rush, L. (2014). Military advocacy of peaceful approaches for cultural property protection. In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Salerno, M., & Zarankin, A. (2014). “Everything is kept in memory.” Reflections on the memory sites of the dictatorship in Buenos Aires (Argentina). In A. González-Ruibal & G. Moshenska (Eds.), Ethics and the archaeology of violence. New York: Springer.
Scarre, G. (2006). Can archaeology harm the dead? In C. Scarre & G. Scarre (Eds.), The ethics of archaeology: Philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice (pp. 181–198). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Scarre, C., & Scarre, G. (Eds.). (2006). The ethics of archaeology: Philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Schofield, J., Johnson, W., & Beck, C. (Eds.). (2002). Material culture: The archaeology of 20th century conflict. London: Routledge.
Sezneva, O. (2007). “We have never been German”: The economy of digging in Russian Kaliningrad. In C. Calhoun & R. Sennett (Eds.), Practicing culture (pp. 13–34). London: Routledge.
Steele, C. (2008). Archaeology and the forensic investigation of recent mass graves: Ethical issues for a new practice of archaeology. Archaeologies, 4(3), 414–428.
Stone, P. (Ed.). (2011). Cultural heritage, ethics, and the military. Woodbridge, England: Boydell.
Tarlow, S. (2006). Archaeological ethics and the people of the past. In C. Scarre & G. Scarre (Eds.), The ethics of archaeology: Philosophical perspectives on archaeological practice (pp. 199–216). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Vitelli, K., & Colwell-Chanthaphonh, C. (Eds.). (2006). Archaeological ethics. Oxford, England: AltaMira Press.
Watkins, J. (2003). Archaeological ethics and American Indians. In L. Zimmerman, K. Vitelli, & J. Hollowell-Zimmer (Eds.), Ethical issues in archaeology (pp. 57–69). Oxford, England: AltaMira Press.
Wylie, A. (2005). The promise and perils of an ethic of stewardship. In L. Meskell & P. Pels (Eds.), Embedding ethics (pp. 47–68). Oxford, England: Berg.
Zachrisson, I. (2004). Archaeology and ethics: The South Sami example. In H. Karlsson (Ed.), Swedish archaeologists on ethics (pp. 117–131). Lindome, Sweden: Bricoleur.
Zimmerman, L., Vitelli, K., & Hollowell-Zimmer, J. (Eds.). (2003). Ethical issues in archaeology. Oxford, England: AltaMira Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Moshenska, G., González-Ruibal, A. (2015). Introduction: The Only Way is Ethics. In: González-Ruibal, A., Moshenska, G. (eds) Ethics and the Archaeology of Violence. Ethical Archaeologies: The Politics of Social Justice, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1643-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1643-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1642-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1643-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)