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Postcolonial Criticism in One World Archaeology: Where Is North Africa's Place? Elena A.A. Garcea, Universita di Cassino, Frosinone, Italy

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ABSTRACTS Abstracto: Africa del Norte hace tiempo ha sido considerada una extension de Europa del sur. Cuando fue claro que los arque61ogos de Africa del Norte siguieron la dinamica no-europea, ellos fueron excluidos de los actuales debates y recientes resefas. Este trabajo ofrece una critica postcolonial derivada de muchos afros de trabajo en el campo en dos paises arabes africanos: Libia y Sudan. Yo comienzo analizando el papel de tema/objeto del arqueologo, que contleva hacia una vista engendrada del presente. Despues, yo discuto la perspectiva det arqueologo sobre el desarrollo economico y explotacion de recursos. Finalmente, yo sugiero reposicionar al Africa del Norte en el actual debate arqueologico, igual queen relation a los actuales eventos politicos y sociales. o O CN .D

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R@sum@:L'Afrique du Nord a longtemps ete consid~ree comme une extension de l'Europe du Sud. Quand il est devenu evident que les archeologues nord africains suivaient une dynamique non-europeenne, ceux-ci ont ete exclus des debats courants et des revisions.Ce papier offre une critique postcoloniale cons6cutive h de nombreuses annees de travaux passees sur le terrain dans deux pays arabes d'Afrique du Nord: la Libye et le Soudan. Je commence par d@construire les r61es sujet/objet de l'archeologue, qui menent a une vision orient6e du passe. Puis, j' examine la perspective des archeologues quant au developpement @conomique et l'exploitation des ressources. Enfin, je suggere de replacer l'Afrique du Nord darts le debar archeologique courant, et de la mettre en relation avec les ev@nements sociaux et politiques en tours.

Introduction "Don't Panic, I'm Islamic" is a song written shortly after 9/11, which has become so popular that it is portrayed on T-shirts as a message of nonviolence. Current political disasters have contributed toward creating a distorted understanding of Islamic faith and culture. The focus is placed instead on Islam

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as a political tool in power struggles. Archaeology is not excluded from this dismal condition and the discipline has often been linked to political agendas. During colonial times, and in the decades that immediately followed, most archaeological research in North Africa was carried out by French scholars, especially prehistorians, who expected to find similar cultural dynamics to those of Europe and the Near East (Balout 1955; Bordes 1984; Camps 1974; Hugot 1963; Tixier 1967). North Africa was conceived of as an extension of southern Europe, and, consequently, early scholars interpreted the North African archaeological record using European-based frames of reference, even adopting the same terminology which has proved to be ill-suited to African contexts (for further discussion, see Bishop and Clark 1967; di Lernia and Garcea 1997; Garcea 2004a, 2004b; Kleindienst 1998, 2000; McBrearty and Brooks 2000:487). The result is that North Africa has remained isolated from discussions on Mediterranean and Near Eastern prehistory, with which it shared the same terminology, as well as the sub-Saharan African contexts with which it did not share any common comparative terminology. This isolation created a serious methodological problem from the perspective of North African prehistory and archaeological research. Furthermore, the fact that the North African countries are part of the Arab region seems to have played a role in the neglect of certain "politically sensitive" issues, such as cultural heritage management (CHM) and Indigenous archaeology. Westerners who have worked in this region have often launched joint projects with national and local antiquities authorities, but they seem to have maintained an excessively respectful and nonintrusive attitude toward various issues, such as the Arabisation of Indigenous populations, the colonisation of the Arabs, the management of pre- and post-Islamic heritage, and international cooperation between Western and Arab countries. With few exceptions (see below), the consequences of these attitudes have been critical, preventing or delaying local applications of up-to-date science and CHM policies, as they have no access to the best practises developed in other parts of the world (Layton 1989, 1994; Smith and Wobst 2005). Thus, only sub-Saharan Africa seems to be entitled to contribute to discourse on "sensitive issues." However, historically, North Africa includes Indigenous populations who were colonised by European countries. In fact, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights encouraged several initiatives taken by North African Indigenous populations, such as the Amazigh Committee for Development and Human Rights created in 1997 at the time of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The group participated in the establishment of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee, an umbrella organisation representing the Indigenous peoples of the continent. The results of the committee included the recognition of the Tamazigh language in Algeria's constitution and the institution of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture in Morocco (www.ohchr.org/english/,

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accessed November 2004). In an attempt to switch attention to North Africa and to enlarge the debate on current theoretical and practical approaches to a part of the world that has long been neglected and isolated, I shall present some personal insights and examples from two Arab countries in North Africa, Libya, and Sudan, where I have been working for many years.

DeconstructingSubjectand Object Travelling can increase our awareness of who we are and how we are perceived-that is, who others think we are and, accordingly, their expectations as to our behaviour. When we travel as scientists, we may think that this does not happen, but this is not the case. In order to provide food for thought and in answer to the questions raised by the One World Archaeology movement, I shall try to switch the subject-object roles, describing myself as an object, and viewing the objects of my research as active subjects in the debate. Undertaking an excavation in Libya or Sudan is not like working in my own backyard. In my case, I am a Western woman working in strongly male-dominated cultures. I am perceived as a Catholic, simply by being Italian, and [ am perceived as a representative of one of the countries that has fully supported the present interventionist foreign politics of the U.S. government. None of these perceptions reflect my personal viewpoints, but I am aware that they remain in the background of all of my professional and social interactions. In addition, Libya, sadly, is one of my country's ex-colonies and Sudan was partly occupied by unsuccessful, but nevertheless devastating, military troops from my country. Thus, I can also be perceived as a descendant of former colonisers. I believe that this contradictory object/subject, identity/image can be extended to most archaeologists sensitive to their intercultural relations, particularly when working in Arab countries. The conflicted self working in these countries faces a twofold subject/object relation. Two levels of tradition constitute the working context: the past pre-Islamic traditions and the present Islamic culture. The conditions of the Berbers in Libya, and those of the populations in southern Sudan and Darfur, reveal hardships that go beyond the conflicts that archaeological research may raise (Layton 1989). There may be legitimate reasons for archaeologists to take distant positions and exclude politically "hot" areas from discussion, including scientific debate, to wait for more peaceful times. On the other hand, given that archaeologists are, even unintentionally, politically implicated, they can play a more active role in providing a positive contribution to the political, cultural, and social conflicts surrounding them. Thus, North Africa also cries out for postcolonial criticism as an opportunity to mediate, challenge, and reflect upon the relations of domination and subordination (Moore-Gilbert 1997; Prakash 1995) and demands our professional and social responsibilities (Ucko 1989).

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Engendering the Present Coming from Italy, a male-dominated society, and working in possibly even more male-dominated countries, I cannot be insensitive to gender issues. Western women working in Arab countries may opt to shift their relations in the solely professional sector and ignore their gender identity. However, as their gender identity is often not ignored, women archaeologists can be exposed to extremely interesting, and surprisingly positive, intercultural dynamics enacted with respect to their gender. Women presently direct six out of eleven Italian archaeological research projects in Libya. Of the five Italian archaeological projects in Sudan, women direct three. This prevalence of women field directors differs from the widespread tendency to discriminate against women in the scientific arena (Joyce and Claassen 1997; Victor and Beaudry 1992). Therefore, it appears that Western women archaeologists are not discriminated against but rather supported in these Arab countries. One reason for this may be that they break the maleto-male tension for competition and power, which is also applied to women in the Western world, but not in the Arab one. Thus, women working in the Arab regions have the opportunity to develop an alternative niche with regard to social relations and professional collaboration. Possibly they are also more accepted in the role, fostered by postcolonial criticism, of mediating between the dominant and the dominated. As a matter of fact, in this context women occupy both positions: the dominant Western leader and the dominated sociocultural "weak" gender.

Development and Resource Exploitation Both Libya and Sudan are presently undergoing massive economic projects with high levels of natural resource exploitation that have a strong impact on the archaeological heritage of the region. In numerous cases, one of the most significant examples of this exploitation is the petroleum exploration programme in the Messak Settafet, in southwestern Libya--one of the richest oil areas in the world. However, its exploitation has caused irreparable archaeological and natural damage, including the destruction of 23 percent of the total archaeological heritage. This destruction includes extensive rock art and archaeological sites in just one oil field; the vanishing of many species of wild animals and plants, which exist in an extremely fragile desert environment; and increased erosion and deflation of the desert floors (KrOpelin 2002). The Messak Settafet plateau is adjacent to the Tadrart Acacus, another mountain range rich in rock art and archaeological sites (Barich 1974, 1987; Cremaschi and di Lernia 1998; di Lernia 1999; di Lernia and Manzi 2002; Garcea 2001; Mori 1965, 1998), which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage property. In

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2004, UNESCO denounced oil exploitation in these areas as one of the most preoccupying threats to the heritage of the area (UNESCO 2004), but there does not seem to be enough attention from either the media or the scientific community to halt this exploitation. If archaeology is unavoidably implicated in political events, it is also involved in the economic organisation of a country. Oil deposits are certainly enormously profitable, but cultural heritage is also a valuable economic resource. Oil and archaeology should both be integrated within a common development plan. The Libyan Arab lamahiriya had five cultural properties inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List prior to 1993, but since then it has submitted no other inventories of sites to be considered for inclusion. Neither did it submit a report on the Implementation of the Cultural Heritage Convention compiled by the state parties of the Arab region (UNESCO 2004). Sudan is a signatory to the convention, but it had only one site included in the World Heritage List in 2003 (UNESCO 2004). In both countries, additional actions should be fostered to record and classify sites. Other initiatives should follow UNESCO's example: the organisation has recently made specific efforts focussed on the Arab world, including the Regional Programme for the Arab States presented to the World Heritage Committee in Paris on May 2003. This programme aimed at enhancing heritage management, information exchange and documentation, and the development of World Heritage information management capacity in the Arab states. This initiative aimed at developing long-term management strategies and enhancing conservation and monitoring (http://whc.UNESCO.org/acb/,accessed October 2004).

Repositioning North Africa In spite of the admirable initiatives taken by the United Nations in favour of Indigenous populations--by UNESCO to foster heritage management, protection, and conservation; other initiatives taken by ICOM; and the Lom~ Conventions between African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries and the European Union (Garcea 1999)--North Africa remains marginalised. It is marginalised in scientific debate, which often takes into consideration only the southern part of the continent. It is marginalised in the Arab region, where more compelling emergencies draw attention to the war-weary heritage of the Middle East. It is marginalised in the Mediterranean basin, with which it may share a common archaeological terminology but few analogies with regard to artefacts. This isolation risks the stagnation of both cultural heritage management and those in charge of it, whether they are Indigenous groups, national administrators, politicians, or scientific scholars. The WAC has been active in very few cases in North Africa and the region has been underrepresented in its decision-making bodies. WAC should recon-

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sider the role of North Africa, as well as its contributions to the region. WAC, founded on a wide constituency of diverse representatives, has proven capable of successfully involving Indigenous and postcolonial researchers in the development of cooperative and successful practises that acknowledge the historical, social, and political roles of archaeology. Hopefully, WAC members will take the opportunity to look into the enormous potential of this region. North Africa could benefit from its placement and position and turn current disadvantages into the means of repositioning itself as a strategic and central crossroad for multicultural identities.

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Garcea, E.A.A. 1999. Cultural Resources Management: The Case of the University of Cassino and the Sudanese National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums. Africa 54(2) :276-281. Garcea, E.A.A. (editor) 2001. Uan Tabu in the Settlement History of the Libyan Sahara. Ml'Insegna del Giglio, Firenze, Italy. 2004a. Crossing Deserts and Avoiding Seas: Aterian North African-European Relations. Journal of Anthropological Research 60:27-53. 2004b. An Alternative Way Towards Food Production: The Perspective from the Libyan Sahara. Jou rnal of World Prehistory 18(2): 107-154. Hugot, H.-J. 1963. Recherches prOhistoriques dans l'Ahaggar nord-occidental. M0moires du C.R.A.P.E. 1, Paris. Joyce, R.A., and C. Claassen 1997. Women in the Ancient Americas: Archaeologists, Gender, and the Making of Prehistory. In Women in Prehistory: North America and Mesoamerica, edited by C. Claassen and R.A. Joyce, pp. 1-14. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. Kleindienst, M.R. 1998. What Is the Aterian? The View from Dakhleh Oasis and the Western Desert, Egypt. In The Oasis Paper: Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, edited by M. Marlow and A.J. Mills, pp. 1-14. Oxbow Books, Oxford, United Kingdom. 2000. On the Nile Corridor and the Out-of-Africa Model. Current Anthropology 41(1):107-109. Kr6pelin, S. 2002. Damage to Natural and Cultural Heritage by Petroleum Exploration and Desert Tourism in the Messak Settafet (Central Sahara, Southwest Libya). In

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Prakash, G. 1995. After Colonialism. In After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements, edited by G. Prakash, pp. 3-17. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey. Smith, C., and H.M. Wobst (editors) 2005. Indigenous Archaeologies: Decolonising Theory and Practice.Routledge, London. Tixier, J. 1967. Proc4d4s d'analyse et questions de terminologie concernant l'4tude des ensembles industriels du Pal4olithique r~cent et de l'Epipal6olithique dans l'Afrique du Nord-Ouest. In Background to Evolution in Africa, edited by N.W. Bishop and J.D. Clark, pp. 771-820. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Ucko, P. 1989. Foreword. In Conflicting in the Archaeology of Living Traditions, edited by R. Layton, pp. ix-x'vii. Unwin Hyman, London. UNESCO 2004. Periodic Report and Regional Programme: Arab States, 2000-2003. World Heritage Papers Series 11. Paris. Electronic document, http://whc.UNESCO .org/documents/publi_wh_papers 11 en,pdf, accessed October 2004. Victor, K.L., and M.C. Beaudry 1992. Women's Participation in American Prehistoric and Historic Archaeology: A Comparative Look at the Journals American Antiquity and Historical Archaeology. In Exploring Gender through Archaeology. Selected Papersfront the 1991 Boone Conference, edited by C. Claassen, pp. 11-21. Prehistory Press, Madison, Wisconsin.