Marcus Brittain’s research while affiliated with University of Cambridge and other places

Archaeologies of Cultural Contact undertakes an exploration of cultural contact and cultural transfer, with a particular focus on the combination and modification of material and behavioural attributes under conditions of contact. From globalization and displacement to cultural legitimization and identity politics, the modern world is characterized by and articulated through dynamics of contact and transfer. The book recognizes that creolization, ethnogenesis, hybridity, and syncretism are analytical concepts and social processes not only of relevance to the postcolonial contexts of the twentieth century but to wide-ranging instances where contact is made between cultural groups. Indeed, in representing the re-working of pre-existing cultural elements, they were crucial and ever-present features of the human past. Characterized as passive, agentless, and unidirectional, this volume exposes and overcomes various limitations of competing models of cultural change. Ranging in their analytical frame, scale, and geographical and temporal location, the thirteen chapters in this volume demonstrate the diverse understandings that can be gained from explorations into the material remains of past contact. The volume permits insights not only into cultural change and difference but also the processes of appropriation, resistance, redefinition, and incorporation. Together, the contributions articulate the perspectives that concern practices in relations to people, places, and things and note how power dynamics mediate social interactions and sustain and constrain forms of cultural contact. This book will be of interest to researchers and students in archaeology and also those from cognate disciplines, particularly anthropology and history.

Archaeologies of Cultural Contact undertakes an exploration of cultural contact and cultural transfer, with a particular focus on the combination and modification of material and behavioural attributes under conditions of contact. From globalization and displacement to cultural legitimization and identity politics, the modern world is characterized by and articulated through dynamics of contact and transfer. The book recognizes that creolization, ethnogenesis, hybridity, and syncretism are analytical concepts and social processes not only of relevance to the postcolonial contexts of the twentieth century but to wide-ranging instances where contact is made between cultural groups. Indeed, in representing the re-working of pre-existing cultural elements, they were crucial and ever-present features of the human past. Characterized as passive, agentless, and unidirectional, this volume exposes and overcomes various limitations of competing models of cultural change. Ranging in their analytical frame, scale, and geographical and temporal location, the thirteen chapters in this volume demonstrate the diverse understandings that can be gained from explorations into the material remains of past contact. The volume permits insights not only into cultural change and difference but also the processes of appropriation, resistance, redefinition, and incorporation. Together, the contributions articulate the perspectives that concern practices in relations to people, places, and things and note how power dynamics mediate social interactions and sustain and constrain forms of cultural contact. This book will be of interest to researchers and students in archaeology and also those from cognate disciplines, particularly anthropology and history.

Este artículo examina la sustitución de una producción local de vasos cerámicos por otra foránea adquirida en el mercado. En arqueología se asocia el intercambio y la circulación de los objetos con la innovación y el cambio cultural. Sin embargo, los lugares donde se producen dichos intercambios suponen un desafío al paso del tiempo. La descripción de uno de estos espacios de mercado, en el actual sudoeste etíope, nos permite abordar la complejidad de las interacciones entre compradores mursi y alfareras aari, dos grupos del curso bajo del río Omo. El estudio incorpora variables de carácter temporal, espacial y tecnológico, y una metodología que combina la descripción tipológica con la obtención de testimonios orales. Los orígenes de los actuales mercados al aire libre en la región están vinculados a la conquista militar de la zona a finales del siglo XIX por parte del imperio etíope. Las consecuencias del acceso al mercado y el abandono de una tradición cerámica se manifiestan en múltiples esferas que superan el ámbito tecnológico. Estos espacios efímeros de interacción de objetos, productos y personas revelan su capacidad a la hora de crear nuevas jerarquías e identidades.

Los mursi son un grupo agrícola-ganadero del sudoeste de Etiopía que construye unos poblados temporales denominados ôrri a bio. En estos asentamientos se emplea, de forma cotidiana, una serie de objetos realizados a partir de materiales locales abundantes mediante técnicas conocidas por la mayor parte de la población. Habitualmente, los estudios sobre identidades colectivas prestan menos atención a este tipo de objetos cotidianos y, en cambio, priorizan otros de carácter más extraordinario. Sin embargo, este conjunto de materiales, así como sus formas, funciones, significados y las prácticas asociadas a ellos, tienen un papel relevante a la hora de establecer quién pertenece a la comunidad y cómo lo hace. En el presente estudio se emplea el ôrri a bio como unidad de observación etnoarqueológica donde explorar la relación entre diversas materialidades y la construcción de un particular nosotros.

en Whilst there is growing concern within archaeology about the wider impact of archaeological research in general, only limited attention has so far been paid to the impact fieldwork has on local communities. Here, using examples from fieldwork with an agro‐pastoral Mursi community in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley, we present a case in which local oral traditions are modified in response to archaeological discoveries. This illustrates a particular example of the impact of fieldwork during and after its completion; and the enduring traces of contact upon fieldwork participants. We argue that in employing an attitude of impact practice within fieldwork that foregrounds the Socratic notion of dialogue, the resulting focus highlights the value and significance of archaeology to local communities. Résumé fr Histoires orales et impact des contacts au cours du travail de terrain archéologique : Socrate dans la vallée de l'Omo Alors que les archéologues se préoccupent de plus en plus de l'impact de la recherche archéologique en général, celui du travail de terrain sur les populations locales n'a encore reçu qu'une attention limitée. Les auteurs présentent ici, à partir d'exemples de travail de terrain dans une communauté agropastorale Mursi dans la basse vallée de l'Omo, en Éthiopie, un cas dans lequel les traditions orales locales ont évolué en réponse aux découvertes archéologiques. Cela illustre un exemple particulier de l'impact du travail de terrain, pendant et aprés son déroulement, et des traces durables des contacts pendant ce travail sur ses participants. Ils avancent l'idée qu'en abordant l'impact du travail de terrain sous l'angle du dialogue socratique, on peut mettre en lumiére la valeur et la signification de l'archéologie pour les communautés locales.

Here we present the context and nature of findings from the first season of archaeological survey and trial excavation in an area of Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley. With the exception of well-documented early hominin discoveries, the region has previously been overlooked as a wilderness absent of human inhabitation. Such an outlook has fostered various consequences for strategies of legal, research and conservation policy within the regional boundaries of Mursiland in particular. In this paper recent discoveries of megalithic circular platforms and other archaeological remains are introduced against their dynamic local and regional placement within present-day understandings of place. Furthermore, we emphasise the value of a participative archaeology research framework in which accountability is directed towards common ground between multiple “stake-holders” within the design and dissemination of the research agenda. This demonstrates important possibilities for intricate understandings of wilderness and landscape linked to heritage, conservation, development and tourism.