TAG2019-UCL

The notion of resistance is receiving a great deal of attention in the social sciences, but at the same time its productiveness is at risk due to the heterogeneity of meanings that it encompasses, ranging from violent and organised opposition to small scale, everyday acts of dissidence. The ‘soft version’ of the concept is due to James Scott (1990), according to whom every small dissident practice can be labelled as resistance as long as it bears that intentionality. However, this conceptualisation has been accused of accepting as resistance practices that are in fact trivial. In contrast, more radical approaches have argued that power exists within every network of relationships, and its visibility and functioning change depending on the processes of dissolution/resistance that operate within human societies. Following González-Ruibal (2014), processes of resistance can be characterised as a spectrum, which depending on intentionality, capacity and visibility, allows to distinguish between resilience, resistance and rebellion. Archaeology is in a privileged position to analyse issues of resistance and power, as it allows us to understand how the past (memories, habits, traditions) and material culture are constitutive elements of both. This session invites critical contributions to these debates, focusing particularly in the following:

• Theorisation of the notion of resistance and its application in Archaeology.
• Theorisation of key concepts related with resistance, such as power and state, from an archaeological perspective.
• Analysis of resistance practices in any archaeological context, but particularly colonial/imperial.
• Analysis of resistance practices as a tool against inequality.
• Analysis of resistance practices in state societies/societies against the state.

Organisers: Manuel Fernández-Götz; University of Edinburgh • Guillermo Diaz de Liano del Valle; University of Edinburgh • Felipe Criado-Boado; CSIC • Carlos Tejerizo-García; Incipit-CSIC

14:00 | Session organisers | Introduction

14:05 | Manuel Fernández-Götz, University of Edinburgh | Communities against the state: resistance to hierarchy in preindustrial societies

14:20 | Ana G. San Martín, Brown University | Metaphors to resist by

14:35 | Beatrijs de Groot, University of Edinburgh | Resisting technological change: how does it work and how can we recognise it?

14:50 | Guillermo Diaz de Liano del Valle, University of Edinburgh | Resistance in times of ontological uncertainty

15:05 | - | BREAK

15:35 | Rachel Cartwright, University of Minnesota | Resistance is Futile: The transition to Christianity in Iceland

15:50 | Eduardo Herrera Malatesta, Leiden University | Counter-mapping the Spanish invasion: A multiscalar and multitemporal approach of the indigenous resistance in Haytí

16:05 | Alexander Aston, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford | Flame of the Red Flag: Ecologies of Resistance from the Paris Commune to Present

16:20 | Enrique Moral de Eusebio, Universitat Pompeu Fabra | When Sexualities Clash: Ethnosexual Conflicts and Resistances during the Spanish Colonisation of the Mariana Archipelago

16:35 | Jaime Almansa-Sánchez, JAS Arqueología, Madrid / Incipit-CSIC | Resistance and resilience in the management of archaeological heritage

16:50 | Carlos Tejerizo-García, Incipit-CSIC | Franco's craving: archaeology of repression and resistance of the Spanish antifrancoist guerrilla

17:05 | Alfredo González-Ruibal, Incipit-CSIC | Discussion

17:30 | - | END