Abstract

HAMILAKIS, Yannis. Archaeology, neofascism and white supremacy: decolonizing our theories, engaging in practices of resistance. Discursos del sur [online]. 2023, n.11, pp.35-62.  Epub July 31, 2023. ISSN 2617-2283.  http://dx.doi.org/10.15381/dds.n11.25859.

In this article, I first explore the use of discursive and iconographic tropes from antiquity by neo-fascist and white supremacist groups, primarily in Greece but also in other, western contexts. These rely on specific, historically and empirically problematic constructions of ancient Sparta, and on other cultural formations and events such as the Greek-Persian wars, ancient Macedonia, and figures such as Alexander the Great. Militarization, the notions of sacrifice at war, racist and orientalist hierarchies, and the cult of the leader give the tone. Paradoxically, modern archaeo-genetic research is at times deployed by these groups to claim scientific proof of genetic continuity, reminding us of the dangers of the biologization of identity. In the second part of the paper, I suggest that archaeologists should counter such neo-fascist deployments by critiquing teleological and progressivist time, decolonizing the sensorial and affective regimes of racial and capitalist modernity, and confronting the ontology grounded on an individualized and autonomous self. I illustrate some of these thoughts by briefly presenting my work on the archaeology of contemporary migration and border crossing in the Aegean, based on fieldwork on the island of Lesvos. Such work constitutes an archaeological intervention in one of the most crucial issues of our time, and one that is often exploited by racist and neo-fascist discourses and practices. At the same time, it challenges the very foundations of modernist archaeology foregrounding multi-temporality, and inviting us to revisit our conceptions of the archaeological, of monuments, and of heritage.

Keywords : Archaeology; neofascism; Greece; decolonization; contemporary migration.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )