Oral Presentation Session - Invited Status Awarded

Invited by: Archaeology Division

Of interest to: Practicing and Applied Anthropologists, Teachers of Anthropology in Community Colleges, Students, Those Involved in Mentoring Activities

Primary Theme: The Political

Secondary Theme: Resilience

(4-0405) Hindsight Politics: the Present and Future of the Political Past

Hindsight politics is proposed as a broad anthropological framework for studying the political past with an eye turned to the present and beyond. This comparative anthropological session includes contributions from the fields of archaeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. The authors of this session, working in all areas of the Americas and in West Africa, use relevant aspects of their research to address questions related to four broad sociopolitical issues:
1- The interplay between political communication and cultural discourses;
2- Oppressive political practices such as colonialism and authoritarianism;
3- The "illusion of sedentism" and its derived issues with maps, borders, and ecological sustainability;
4- The clash between economic systems and political structures.
These distinct questions are united by a common desired outcome: to learn from the political past to better understand the political present and, perhaps, contribute to the political future. In addition, this session's broad themes aim to engage a productive discourse between scholars of the (relatively) ancient political world and advocates of heritage groups faced with geopolitical issues rooted in history.

Organizer(s)

• Maxime Lamoureux St-Hilaire

  George Stuart Residential Scholar
  Boundary End Center

Chair(s)

• Maxime Lamoureux St-Hilaire

  George Stuart Residential Scholar
  Boundary End Center

Presenter(s)

• Maxime Lamoureux St-Hilaire

  George Stuart Residential Scholar
  Boundary End Center

• Luis Muro

  Stanford University

• Amanda Logan

  Assistant Professor
  Northwestern University

• Judith Maxwell

  Tulane University

• Haeden Stewart

  University of Chicago

Discussant(s)

• Patricia McAnany

  Kenan Eminent Professor and Chair
  University of North Carolina

Presenter(s)

• Christian Gates St-Pierre

  Assistant Professor
  Université de Montréal

Presentations:

• 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

  Hindsight and Foresight Politics: a Dialogue on Classic Maya Political Resilience
  Maxime Lamoureux St-Hilaire – Boundary End Center
• 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM

  The Moche Utopia: Postcolonialism, Resistance, and Identity Discourses in northern Peru. The case of the Moche contemporary groups
  Luis Muro – Stanford University
• 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM

  Denaturalizing African Food Insecurity through Politicizing the Past
  Amanda Logan – Northwestern University
• 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

  Challenges deriving from the use of (mis)translated indigenous texts in highland Guatemala
  Judith M. Maxwell – Tulane University
• 11:15 AM - 11:30 AM

  In The Shadow Of Industry: Toxic Legacies of Mill Creek Ravine
  Haeden Eli Stewart – University of Chicago
• 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM

  Montreal as a contested territory: reconciliating narratives about the past
  Christian Gates St-Pierre – Université de Montréal
• 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM

  Discussion
  Patricia A. McAnany – University of North Carolina