Books editor¡¯s blog: should anthropology play a role in advocating for displaced people?

¡°Contemporary Archaeology begins with 바카라사이트 commitment that 바카라사이트 more carefully we attend to objects, buildings and landscapes, 바카라사이트 more human our account of 바카라사이트 world may become.¡±

That bold ideal for 바카라사이트ir discipline is at 바카라사이트 heart of a new book titled Lande: The Calais ¡°Jungle¡± and Beyond, by Dan Hicks, professor of contemporary?archaeology at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford, and postdoctoral researcher Sarah Mallet. It accompanies and is with all royalties going to L¡¯Auberge des Migrants, which has aided displaced people in Calais since 2008.

The book notes 바카라사이트 terrible story of ¡°바카라사이트 transformation of [a] large open site of sandy wasteland on 바카라사이트 industrial eastern edge of town, a state-owned former rubbish dump lying between 바카라사이트 road and 바카라사이트 sea, into an ultra-militarised landscape of encampments, barriers, violent conflict and 바카라사이트 regime of ¡®deterrence¡¯¡±, where ¡°at its peak more than 10,000 displaced people lived¡±. It considers 바카라사이트 significance of Calais as ¡°바카라사이트 largest European passenger port, carrying 30?million passengers via Eurostar and ferries in 2017¡±, and which ¡°still handles 17 per cent of all UK trade with 바카라사이트 world¡±.

But it also puts what happened in 바카라사이트 Jungle into a number of wider contexts. Until an agreement made in 바카라사이트 1560s, Calais was essentially ¡°England¡¯s last overseas possession on 바카라사이트 European mainland¡± and ¡°its last pre-colonial overseas possession, 바카라사이트 withdrawal from which was a key moment in 바카라사이트 emergence of 바카라사이트 new oceanic geographies of empire¡±. While believing that ¡°Britain¡¯s fantasies about its imperial past are increasingly wild and self-delusional¡±, 바카라사이트 authors seek to ¡°bear witness to 바카라사이트 border as an ongoing (post)colonial technology¡±. Most asylum seekers in Britain, 바카라사이트y remind us, ¡°come from regions that were formerly part of 바카라사이트 British empire¡±, with those displaced at Calais coming ¡°overwhelmingly¡± from ¡°just four states: Afghanistan, Sudan, South Sudan, and Eritrea (with some smaller but significant numbers of Somalians)¡±.

Even more disturbingly, Hicks and Mallet argue that 바카라사이트 Jungle may be a sign of a more general trend, citing a researcher called Cyrille Hanappe to 바카라사이트 effect that ¡°바카라사이트 most rapidly developing urban model is that of 바카라사이트 precarious city¡­nearly a third of 바카라사이트 world¡¯s population will live in such neighbourhoods by 2030¡±.

And what of 바카라사이트 responsibility of academics? Although anthropology (exemplified not least by museums such as 바카라사이트 Pitt Rivers) is ¡°바카라사이트 discipline that has been closest to 바카라사이트 ongoing colonial project¡±, Lande sees scope for it to reinvent itself ¡°as an anti-racist discipline¡± that?¡°can not only relativise and historicise borderwork, but can also resist it and Fascist nativism too internationally¡±. Along with this goes ¡°a responsibility to continue to make visible 바카라사이트 inhuman treatment of displaced people on European soil and at its walls¡±.

For 바카라사이트ir fellow archaeologists, meanwhile, Hicks and Mallet claim ¡°바카라사이트re can be no more urgent task¡­than to excavate and advocate for 바카라사이트 undocumented present¡±.