Balkan Antiquity as Decolonial Eurocentrism During the Cold War
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Bogdan C. Iacob
Abstract
The chapter focuses on the cooperation between south-eastern scholars specializing in the humanities and UNESCO, highlighting and analysing Balkan discourses of ancientness in international contexts. Founded in 1963, the International Association for South-eastern European Studies (AIESEE) facilitated regional and global dynamics pertaining to the relationship between identity discourses, archaeology, and decolonization during the Cold War. Academics from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey embraced and participated in UNESCO’s drive to de-centre cultural hierarchies. By 1973, AIESEE became involved in the decolonization of archaeology in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. However, Balkan intellectuals displayed a Eurocentrism from the margins imbued with decolonial motifs. The similarities and interactions between south-eastern Europeans and their African peers underlines the need for globally historicizing both archaeology and the Balkans, beyond the established pattern of West and the rest.
Abstract
The chapter focuses on the cooperation between south-eastern scholars specializing in the humanities and UNESCO, highlighting and analysing Balkan discourses of ancientness in international contexts. Founded in 1963, the International Association for South-eastern European Studies (AIESEE) facilitated regional and global dynamics pertaining to the relationship between identity discourses, archaeology, and decolonization during the Cold War. Academics from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Turkey embraced and participated in UNESCO’s drive to de-centre cultural hierarchies. By 1973, AIESEE became involved in the decolonization of archaeology in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. However, Balkan intellectuals displayed a Eurocentrism from the margins imbued with decolonial motifs. The similarities and interactions between south-eastern Europeans and their African peers underlines the need for globally historicizing both archaeology and the Balkans, beyond the established pattern of West and the rest.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- List of Contributors IX
- Digging Politics: The Ancient Past and Contested Present 1
- Balkan Antiquity as Decolonial Eurocentrism During the Cold War 17
- Thracian Archaeology and National Identity in Communist Bulgaria: The Ideological Pattern of Museum Exhibitions 45
- Imagining King’s Landing: Dubrovnik, the Diegetic Heritage of Game of Thrones, and the Imperialism of Popular Culture 77
- Slavic Archaeology as “A Special Obligation”? Researching the Early Slavs in Communist Poland and East Germany 107
- Allies out of Ashes? Polish Ideas for the Refounding of Medieval Western Slavic States after 1945 131
- Roman Heritage in Hungary: The Case of the Fertőrákos Mithraeum on the Iron Curtain 157
- ‘Eurasian Magyars’: The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary 181
- Beyond Radical Right Politics: LGBTQ+ Rights in Hungary and Romania 217
- The Protochronistic Depiction of the Transylvanian Saxons in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s History Textbooks (1976–1989) 241
- Dacian Blood: Autochthonous Discourse in Romania during the Interwar Period 257
- Why Nationalism Survives in Romanian Archaeology and What Could Limit its Impact 287
- Archaeology and the Challenge of Continuity: East-Central Europe during the Age of Migrations 307
- Index 347
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents VII
- List of Contributors IX
- Digging Politics: The Ancient Past and Contested Present 1
- Balkan Antiquity as Decolonial Eurocentrism During the Cold War 17
- Thracian Archaeology and National Identity in Communist Bulgaria: The Ideological Pattern of Museum Exhibitions 45
- Imagining King’s Landing: Dubrovnik, the Diegetic Heritage of Game of Thrones, and the Imperialism of Popular Culture 77
- Slavic Archaeology as “A Special Obligation”? Researching the Early Slavs in Communist Poland and East Germany 107
- Allies out of Ashes? Polish Ideas for the Refounding of Medieval Western Slavic States after 1945 131
- Roman Heritage in Hungary: The Case of the Fertőrákos Mithraeum on the Iron Curtain 157
- ‘Eurasian Magyars’: The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary 181
- Beyond Radical Right Politics: LGBTQ+ Rights in Hungary and Romania 217
- The Protochronistic Depiction of the Transylvanian Saxons in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s History Textbooks (1976–1989) 241
- Dacian Blood: Autochthonous Discourse in Romania during the Interwar Period 257
- Why Nationalism Survives in Romanian Archaeology and What Could Limit its Impact 287
- Archaeology and the Challenge of Continuity: East-Central Europe during the Age of Migrations 307
- Index 347
