Collaboration, collaborators, and conflict: ethics, engagement, and archaeological practice

Summary

Collaboration in contemporary archaeological parlance principally refers to active engagement with one or more selected groups of stakeholders and co-producers of knowledge. But knowledge is always produced for a purpose, and collaboration, or to be a ‘collaborator’ in conflict settings implies an allegiance, often deceitful, to one cause or another. When embedding archaeology in conflict transformation activities, being seen as a ‘collaborator’, or partisan, can actively work against the aims of peacebuilding. Drawing upon experience in conflict transformation within post-Troubles Northern Ireland (where the term collaborator has very negative connotations), issues of ethics and positionality are considered, and an alternative terminology for embedding archaeology in peacebuilding activity is posited.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• A Global Dialogue on Collaborative Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14948