Reflections on the First Meeting of the WAC Committee of Ethics

WAC needs to recognise that it is not a fully developed organisation but a developing one. There are standpoints or ways-of-thinking in the world which are difficult to perceive through the lens of different customs and/or languages and with which the people in WAC may not be familiar. In addition, we need to follow the laws under which we carry out archaeological activities, so that society can maintain public order. Therefore, when involved in an archaeological activity, we should collect as much information, and as wide a variety of standpoints, as possible, and we should act honestly with respect for law and for human life in the societies in which we work.     

Reflections on Attending the WAC Ethics Committee Workshop

This short piece recalls my expectations for the Ethics Committee Workshop, reflects on how refreshing and stimulating it was to see all my expectations tumble, and concludes with further puzzlement about how to proceed. Supplementary abstract, written by Julie Hollowell: Joan arrived at Stanford with a specific interest in developing an International Code of Ethics with guidelines that would challenge archaeologists to carry out more responsible and ethical research abroad. She found that almost all of her preconceived ideas for such a Code were altered as a result of our discussions about the limitations of drafting a document specifying what was “good” or “bad” from a generalized perspective. The focus instead lay on the PROCESS of making ethical decisions, based on WAC principles, alternative ways of constructing an ethical outcome, and learning from case studies. She emphasizes that ultimately we will certainly want to weigh our suggestions for ethical-decision-making so that certain outcomes are favored over others and notes that this is where the application of social justice as a key organizing principle comes into play.     

Scholarly Publication and WAC: The Need for a Critical Response

This paper is a response to recent critiques of the World Archaeological Congress (WAC), including its Global Libraries Program. WAC should take greater leadership in addressing the current unequal state of international scholarly publication. Scholars from the global south disproportionately have more difficulty obtaining published works and fewer venues to publish their own research. This paper calls WAC to encourage and support local and non-English publications, open access works and journals, commons-based licensing, and e-repositories.     

A three-takes tale: The meaning of WAC for a pluralistic archaeology

Resumen Este articulo propone que la reciente trayectoria de la arqueología puede entenderse como una grabación en tres tomas: la primera, el proyecto científico, delata el origen moderno de la disciplina; la segunda devalúa la historia y, por tanto, la disciplina responsable de su producción; y, la tercera, completamente reaccionaria, supone un regreso a los orígenes, la realización de una producción arqueológica plural, horizontal y significativa a nivel local. Se resalta el papel del WAC en este trayectoria.

---

Résumé Cette communication démontre que la récente trajectoire de l'archéologie peut être expliquée en tant qu'une triple prise. La première, le projet scientifique qui trahit les origines modernes de cette discipline; la deuxième qui dévalorise l'histoire et ainsi le mécanisme disciplinaire responsable de sa production; et la troisième, entièrement réactionnaire est un retour aux sources ainsi que la réalisation de la production archéologique en tant que plurielle, horizontale et importante du point de vue locale. Le role du WAC est souligné dans ce compte-rendu.

     

抗战时期中央广播事业指导委员会历次会议记录选编(一)

1936年春,国民党中常会批准设置中央广播事业指导委员会,作为指导、考核及监督全国广播事业的机构。该机构由国民党中央执行委员会指定主任委员、副主任委员,并由中央广播事业管理处、宣传部、海外部、社会部、军事委员会、交通部、教育部、外交部、内政部、国际宣传处等机构派代表组成。1937年5月召开第五次会议后,因抗战全面爆发而暂停,1938年9月起恢复。本组史料辑录了全面抗战时期中央广播事业指导委员会历次会议记录,反映了该机构在战时广播电台建设、广播网设置、对内对外宣传等方面所起的作用。     

在中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会首届学术年会上的讲话

(2006年8月21日)同志们:中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会首届学术年会今天在乌鲁木齐市召开了。这次学术年会,中国地方志指导小组办公室非常重视,年鉴工作专业委员会做了认真的组织和筹备,新疆维吾尔自治区地方志编委会和乌鲁木齐市委、市政府给予了大力支持,承办会议的乌鲁木齐市党史地方志办公室的同志们,为会议的顺利召开,做了大量的、周密的准备工作,付出了辛勤劳动。在此,我谨代表中国地方志指导小组办公室、中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会,向新疆维吾尔自治区地方志编委会、乌鲁木齐市委、市政府的领导同志及乌鲁木齐市党史地方…     

中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会首届学术年会综述

为进一步提高年鉴的编纂质量,探索新时期年鉴的创新与发展,更好地发挥年鉴服务经济社会发展和化建设的功用,为正在开展的第二轮修志做好资料、队伍和理论准备,中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会首届学术年会于2006年8月20--25日在新疆乌鲁木齐市召开。会议由中国地方志协会年鉴工作专业委员会主办,中国地方志指导小组办公室年鉴处和乌鲁木齐市党史地方志办公室联合承办,并得到中国地方志指导小组办公室、新疆维吾尔自治区地方志编委会、[第一段]     

WAC Matters: A Different View to that of Shepherd and Haber

This paper is a response to Shepherd and Haber??s (Public Archaeol 10(2):96?C115, 2011) critiques to World Archaeological Congress, from the viewpoint of the current Secretary of WAC. While most of the issues discussed have been already answered and corrected by Smith (Public Archaeol 10(4):223?C234, 2011), this paper adds my own views on two of these controversial issues: the meeting between WAC and Rio Tinto Limited in 2007 to explore options to work together on enhancing cultural heritage management and protection in mining activities (where I attended as the WAC Treasurer), and the Archaeologists Without Borders Program (as member of the committee for this program).     

The Traditionalisation of the Maori Meeting House

By focusing on two successive phases in the traditionalisation of the Maori meeting house — exhibition and aestheticisation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and standardisation and tribalisation during the 1930s and 1940s — I seek to illustrate how the diverse projects of national identity, tourist marketing, ethnology and state-directed rural development converged to displace meeting houses out of time. I argue that while the short-term effect of this displacement was to suppress developing traditions of oppositional Maori agency this was not the case in the longer term, nor was it always the intention of those engaged in the process.