La Découverte de L’Amérique

This article examines the significance accorded to the discovery of America in the period between 1492 and the publication of Alexander von Humboldt’s Kosmos in 1855. It argues that, the « discovery » of America was perceived as the « uncovering » of not merely a place, but of an epistemological challenge which both transformed, Europe’s intellectual dependence on Antiquity, and shaped its evolving perception of both space and time. It argues that, after the discovery, human history came to be seen, in terms of as series of inventions all of them related to human movement, which were projected, as more and more of the globe was « discovered » into an unpredictable future.     

Culture <Emphasis Type="Italic">Versus</Emphasis> Civilisation la Genèse D’une Opposition

Closely linked to the concept of history, the notion of culture becomes a collective singular during the last third of the xviii ^th century. The German idea of culture did not immediately come into opposition with the notion of civilization and both terms were for a long time almost identical in meaning. What does the polemical orientation of the German notion of culture reveal from 1880–1890? First, the crumbling of the idealistic neo-kantian pattern of self-determined cultivated person as an end in itself (the so-called Selbstbildung); second, the growing moral condemnation of the empty spirit of the time. This double process reaches its apogee full of hatred during World War I.     

Le Médium Technique: Objet et <Emphasis Type="Italic">A Priori</Emphasis>

In his fragment on music, Max Weber reduces the empirically describable musical object to the «technical medium» utilized by each culture on condition that its analysis remains heterogeneous in the face of aesthetic valorisations. Weber emphasises that the phonographic reproduction of sound constitutes the condition of possibility of an empirical analysis of the musical material, the point of departure of a modern comparative musicology. The empirical approach and cultural comparison thus appear linked in an «empirico-transcendental» crossover which makes both an object and an a priori out of the technical medium. The article explains this methodological choice and its consequences for a comparative sociology of art.     

Knowledge,Know-how and Raw Material - The Production of Late Neolithic Flint Daggers in Scandinavia

In this paper, the craftsmanship of the Late Neolithic flint daggers in Scandianvia is investigated. The purpose of the investigation is to map the degree of skill invested in each production stage of the daggers and then relate the degree of craftsmanship to social factors. This is achieved by applying an operational-chain approach to the dagger production system, and by comparison with anthropologically and historically documented crafts in traditional societies. It is concluded that the daggers required knowledge of complicated recipes of action as well as a well-developed muscle memory that can only be acquired through practice. Thus, the craft is interpreted as demanding some form of an institutionalised apprenticeship system that could guarantee that it could be reproduced for at least 24 generations. It is further suggested that the flint dagger technology was consciously organised to keep the recipes of action of the technology exclusive to certain segments of the society.     

Historical Archaeology and the Slave Ship

This introduction explores the relationship between maritime archaeology and the historical archaeology of the African Diaspora, and discusses the structure and content of this special issue of IJHA, which marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade in 2007.     

Through the Sea Snow: The Central Role of Videography in the Deep Gulf Wrecks Mission

The media team on the 2004 Deep Gulf Wrecks mission fulfilled three video-related functions: documentation, preservation, and outreach. Instead of looking at the media team as witnesses to the scientific events or as video tourists, the mission leadership integrated the video, backup, and Internet work into the scientific process carried out in the Gulf of Mexico. While not the first time this kind of cooperation has occurred in deep sea exploration work, the extent of media-scientific collaboration was exceptional in an age of soundbites and formulaic scientific filmmaking. The key strategic and technical lessons learned from the mission are summarized.     

Between Land and Water: Being a Settler at Ile-aux-Oies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

This paper first describes the particular environment represented by the middle estuary where Ile-aux-Oies lies. Secondly, it reconstructs an early French farming settlement on the basis of archaeological remains and demonstrates the place it occupies in this special environment. And thirdly, it places the process of adaptation and appropriation in a more global perspective through a discussion of our research in the light of Ian Hodder’s thesis on the domestication of space during the Neolithic Revolution in Europe.     

Sound Methods: The Necessity of High-resolution Geophysical Data for Planning Deepwater Archaeological Projects

The availability of deepwater survey technology allows researchers to work more readily in waters beyond conventional diving limits and makes possible an increased number of historical shipwreck projects. Several deepwater historical wreck sites are being investigated, some are being archaeologically mapped, and a few are even being excavated. Conducting a deepwater archaeological project to acceptable archaeological standards requires extensive and complex pre-investigation planning; otherwise, valuable data could be lost, as well as expensive ship and sub time wasted. High-resolution geophysical survey data must be a part of this planning process. Utilization of this type of data gives the planning scientists a better overall understanding of the site, which is essential in formulating valid field methodology. Drawing on examples from actual deepwater projects, this article discusses why high-resolution geophysical data is essential to the planning process, the means and methods used to collect the data, and how this data is integrated into the planning process to produce a feasible field project plan.     

The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Childhood and Social Age: Problems and Prospects

Recently, the value of the study of children and childhood from archaeological contexts has become more recognized. Childhood is both a biological and a social phenomenon. However, because of specialization in research fields within anthropology, subadults from the archaeological record are usually studied from the biological perspective (bioarchaeology) or, more predominantly, the social perspective (social archaeology), with little research that incorporates both approaches. These polarized approaches to childhood and age highlight the dualistic way in which “biological” and “social” aspects of the body are viewed. Some recent literature criticizes bioarchaeological approaches, and calls for the incorporation of childhood social theory, including social age categories, into subadult health analysis. However, few studies have explicitly addressed the practicalities or theoretical issues that need to be considered when attempting this. This paper critically examines these issues, including terminology used for defining subadulthood and age divisions within it, and approaches to identify “social age” in past populations. The important contribution that bioarchaeology can make to the study of social aspects of childhood is outlined. Recent theoretical approaches for understanding the body offer exciting opportunities to incorporate skeletal remains into research, and develop a more biologically and socially integrated understanding of childhood and age.

Cultural Imperialism and Heritage Politics in the Event of Armed Conflict: Prospects for an ‘Activist Archaeology’

The production of archaeological knowledge is embedded in a long-standing tradition of colonial encounters. This paper asks how political-economic interests impinge on archaeological work, specifically in the event of armed conflict. To answer this question I discuss commodification of cultural heritage and analyze it as a form of structural violence. I argue that the attitude that allows treatment of archaeological artifacts as saleable items with international owners is part of a strategy of global cultural imperialism. Exemplified by the case of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this paper shows how the clash of global ‘heritage’ politics with local practices of memorializing the past results in a tension: because capitalist governments consider the locales whose glorious pasts are studied by archaeologists to be culturally inferior, the nexus between (trans-)national actors and local communities is an asymmetrical one. In order to overcome the hegemonic role of archaeology within these dynamics, I propose an ‘activist archaeology’ that enables a political activism grounded in recursivity.