The reverberations of history in people's lifeways and thoughts and its particular representations have long been addressed by the social/human sciences. As early as the mid-twentieth century, Edward Evans-Pritchard stressed the strong links between historical and anthropological perspectives and their potential for understanding society's past and present (Evans-Pritchard Reference Evans-Pritchard1950). Historical memory is now acknowledged as a dynamic and multi-layered entity tied to present conflict arenas. The book Conflict archaeology, historical memory, and the experience of war is a ground-breaking collective contribution that critically explores how memory is constructed and reconstructed through narratives of the past, which are disputed across asymmetric relationships and often at different scales.
The book's twelve chapters address this complex phenomenon based on the archaeological research of conflicts from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries, with a focus on violent confrontations between European (mostly English, Spanish and French) countries and Indigenous nations in North America. In particular, this research on colonial conflicts describes the lasting impact of this litany of violence upon Indigenous and non-Native communities (e.g. African American settlers). The emphasis lies on how this is then reproduced nowadays in discourses, mythologising the events and using other powerful symbolic meanings which preclude those long-established neglected or marginalised people from reconciling themselves with their past. The authors here show how archaeology can contribute to a better and clearer understanding of these experiences of conflict and thereby give voice to these largely silenced descendant communities.
The anthropological—as well as the sociological and political—signature of historical and conflict archaeology is well-attested throughout this volume. Mark Tveskov and Ashley Bissonnette (Chapter 1) emphasise that archaeological work needs to be grounded in collaboration and service to contemporary Indigenous peoples and minorities. For them, unmasking the abiding trauma of violence, war and colonialism that configures long-established systemic inequalities that deeply impact living communities, is integral for the foundations of a socially and politically committed archaeological practice. As part of an explanatory phase of the field, as Douglas Scott points out (Chapter 2), battlefields and associated material culture are not only conceived and studied in terms of strategic, tactical or technological issues (i.e. from a physical-forensic perspective), but together they also reveal a living, symbolic and performative scenario, aimed towards transforming our twenty-first-century society for the better.
An early development among emerging nation-states was a particular, strategically crafted and recrafted, triumphant deep-rooted narrative on events and personages (e.g. the Manifest Destiny). This was then reproduced in literature, schools, media, monuments, reenactments, songs, etc. It has shaped and promoted a collective (politically driven) memory of an often triumphant, heroic and sanctified past, that naturalised and perpetuated existing inequalities. Historical battles and wars were traditionally adopted as part of this deep-rooted official narrative. In legitimising dominant ideologies, they oversimplify past actions and minimise their adverse consequences while diminishing or simply erasing the voices of those who lost. These narratives have very concrete implications in the present, for instance, concerning citizenship rights (e.g. Wilkie, Chapter 10).
The meanings of this past have been disputed and changed over time. And as Charles Cobb and colleagues posit (Chapter 3), this has been a major component of a multi-sided struggle since colonial times. On several occasions, military engagements comprised factions within Indigenous communities and Euro-American settlers, fluid ethnic identities and changing roles, and complex relations between different groups (Tveskov, Chapter 8, and Arnott et al., Chapter 9). Within this context, as the public archaeology perspective in this book demonstrates, conflict events and associated tangible and intangible heritage can be used in this conflict memorial field to counterbalance biased narratives.
The research projects presented here have strong empirical grounds and consider landscapes and material culture—also human remains (Beaupré et al., Chapter 6)—as centrepieces of the struggle for visualising and empowering these hidden meanings and identities. Moreover, co-operative initiatives based on horizontal dialogue and enrichment from different stakeholders’ perspectives and data sources have been essential. These should influence the design to execute phases of any archaeological approach aimed at decolonising ethno- or Euro-centric knowledge and history. This is seen in the work with the Chickasaw Explorers Program in Mississippi (Cobb et al., Chapter 3), the Battlefield Advisory Board in New England (Bissonnette & McBride, Chapter 4), and the Jemez organisations (Liebmann, Chapter 5), among other inclusive agendas, shown in this book.
The evocative and transformative power of artefacts and other features from battlefields, fortifications and memorial expressions related to them, makes it possible, at localised scales, to connect discrete events of conflict and individuals in the past with historical developments, processes and structures, as well as ongoing social experiences. As Matthew Liebmann stated, the intangible manifestations linked to violent situations (e.g. miraculous interventions, apparitions) should also be accounted for, thereby achieving a more comprehensive understanding of agents’ metaphysical beliefs and their effects on battle outcomes. Several authors in this volume discuss the ways of remembrance of the past and the configuration of memoryscapes, adopting a microhistorical approach that analyses localised and short-term phenomena and their links with larger-scale reality, past and present (e.g. Tveskov, Chapter 7, and McKinnon, Chapter 11). Furthermore, they contribute to the recovery of the stories and agency of multiple descendant communities, and challenge the dominant narratives of the past.
It is widely recognised that traumas associated with the loss of human lives, identity, knowledge and lands remain long after the end of the conflict, especially at battle/war sites, but also further afield from them. The past haunts people through different means (e.g. some archaeological finds associated with Euro-American soldiers and settlers), as the echoes of the Dakota-US War of 1862 on the Dakota descendants attest (Mann, Chapter 8). Even in the case of much earlier conflicts, such as the events of King Philip's War (1675–1677), members of descendant communities recognise the numerous negative consequences of these conflicts that continue to impact them to the present day as intergenerational trauma. This includes the lack of an Indigenous perspective on history and fear and anger associated with being excluded from local political affairs (Bissonnette & McBride, Chapter 4). The personal exploration of ancestral landmarks and active participation in developing an inclusive history and memorialising activities, which include largely ignored voices, are of utmost importance for healing these, often open, wounds (e.g. Cobb et al., Chapter 3).
Overall, this book is an inspiring theoretical-methodological contribution that invites us to reflect on how different individuals and groups interact with each other through heritage related to modern and contemporary conflicts. It explains how associated events, places and artefacts have been collectively selected, appropriated, signified and commemorated over the years, and explores their repercussions on the representations, identities, voices and lives of different under- or mis-represented communities. As Christine DeLucia highlights (Chapter 12), the collaborative and mutual learning endeavours developed here support descendant communities’ goals and sovereignty by attempting to balance existing power dynamics. Thus, this contribution proves the active and transformative role of history for present-day society and the significant place that an archaeology of conflict, war and battlefields, along with educational initiatives, has for the construction and dissemination of more critical, meaningful and democratic narratives of a shared past.
