Pasts behind the iron curtain
Identity, Nationalism & Internationalist
Pasts in Marxist archaeology
Christoph Kilger
Mastercourse:
Cosmopolitan Pasts 2016
The end of history?
“What we may be witnessing is not
just the end of the Cold War, or the
passing of a particular period of
postwar history, but the end of
history as such: that is, the end
point of mankind's ideological
evolution and the universalization
of Western liberal democracy as the
final form of human Government”
Francis Fukuyama, 1989
Signposts in this lecture
• The power of ideology in archaeologies of the 20th century
such as marxism to construct historical narratives
• The importance of the social as a common frame of
reference in the discourse of modernity
• The materialist/idealist divide within Marxist archaeology
• The interpretations of the slavs within East-German
archaeology
• Promotes a materialist understanding of
human history in accordance with
philosophy of the Communist party
• Advocates a cultural-evolutionary
scheme
• Stresses the historic significance of the
Sovietunion as the first of states to
evolve into socialist society
• Interprets the material record within the
framework of Marxist historical
materialism
History written in blood
Marxism - A theory on conflicts and powerrelations
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy (1867)
• Marxism as a political philosophy based on the
framework of evolution
• Development of society and the evolution of
states
• Strife and conflict between classes in society as
a basic human condition
• State as repressiv instrument of power for
controlling ongoing conflicts in society
• In contrast to other evolutionist ideas who
explain the growth of states as a unifying anf
stabilizing process
Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
The dynamics of historic-materialism
Constant struggle on material resources in society
The origin of the Family.
Private property and the State (1884)
• Engels defines the development of society
within the theoretical framework of historicmaterialism
• Historical developments and social changes
just don´t happen but are the result of ongoing
struggles to control the material resources
• Struggle between an elit and the working class
which produces a material surplus
• Struggle on the means of production always
present in history a decisive factor in the
development of societies
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
The economic and social reproduction
of human relations in history
Forces of
production
• M. defines different dynamic processes
in the economic base such as the
forces of production (FP) and the
relations of production (RP)
Relations of
production
• FP all factors in society which enable
the production process, such as
labourforce, land, tools, råmaterial,
technical know-how etc
• RP all relations between groups in
society which conditions the
production process and the distribution
of material resources
How does Marx explain changes in society?
conflicts
society B
• Marxism predicts that
changes happen because of
conflicts within the
economic base who
manage the material
resources
• Different types of societies
with their own historical
specific way of managing
production within the
economic base
society A
conflicts
historical
development
Economic base
Ideological superstructure
economy, technology
religion
• Societies with different
modes of production
constitute different stages
in historical development
and will replace each
other
Marx was not an archaeologist
”Relics of by-gone instruments of labour posses the
same importance for the investigation of extinct
economical forms of society, as do fossil bones for
the determination of extinct species of animals. It is
not the articles made, but how they are made, and by
what instruments, that enables us to distinguish
different economical epochs. Instruments of labour
not only supply a standard of the degree of
development to which human labour has attained, but
they are also indicators of the social conditions under
which labour is carried out”
(Marx 1867, Capital)
Orthodox marxism and materialism
• Mainaim in Sovjet archaeology was to
explain the social dimension in the
historical development
• The task of archaeology was to
systematically explore and describe the
economic-materiell base in each society
• Data on the economic base as a starting
point for research on the social
development
• Orthodox marxism in essence materialist.
Ideological superstructure subordinate to
the economic base. Plays a minor role in
the development of society
• Criticized by western archaeologists
inspired by Marxism
Dialectic and historical materialism
The end of history ....
• Every society contains the seeds of change –
both the destruction of the present state but at
the same time has the potential for future
development
• Competition between classes on the material
production and resources inhibits further
development. At some point further
development stopps and the order within the
forces of production is at stake
• Social revolution and confrontation between
class is inevitable
Assault on Bastille 1789
The end of ancien regimé
• As a consequence new constellations between
FP and RP arise which are the breeding
ground for future conflicts
• The finale stage, socialst society marks
according to M. the end of history
Language and past cultures –
The orthodox Marxist view
Nicolaj Marr (18651934)
•
Archaeology´s task in the former Sovietunion to
promote understandings of the origins of many ethnic
groups within the union
•
Marr orientalist and linguist leading Russian Academy
for the History of Material Culture (RAIMK)
•
Linguistic changes occur through alterations in the socioeconomic organization of societies
•
Autochthonus development within societies and not
because of migrations. Cultural change through socioeconomic shifts
•
Ethnicity as a result of social class differentiation within
tribal groups. Marr´s ideas later renounced by Stalin in the
1950s
The other position
”Archaeology the most national of sciences”
• Kossina a ”linguist-turned-prehistorian ”laid
the foundation for nationalist German
archaeology
• Archaeological cultures reflection of ethnicity.
Cultural coninuity as ethnic continuity
• Methodological can be studied by
Siedlungsarchäologie
Gustav Kossina
(1858-1930)
• First to to use the concept of archaeological
cultures systematically and to apply it as a
historical approach – however in every sense
perverted
Archaeology as a tool for expansionism
German archaeologists during WWII
searching the ”Urheim” of Germans
• K. declared that
cultures were
advanced because of
biological superiority
• Cultural change as a
result of group
migrations
• Legitimized Nazi
expansionism
in Eastern Europe
The developmet of orthodox marxist archaeology
The history of material culture
Vladislav Ravdonikas
(1894-1976)
•
Cultural revolution, consolidation of Stalin
after 1928. Concept of archaeology rejected as
bourgeois science
•
Marxist archaeologist modified their empirical
studies to analyse the social organisation of
past societies, modes of production ,
technology and ideology
•
Montelian typologcial method renounced
(artifactology). Concept of successive stages
such as Stone, Bronze and Iron Age abandoned
The study of social structure and the
society behind the artefacts
• As a consequence soviet archaeologists
developed different new methodologies
and approaches – not only study of
artefacts
• Study of settlements through large scale
excavations, contextual information on
artefacts in dwelllings etc.
• Innovatiove studies of religious beliefs,
inheritance, property realtions marriage
patterns etc
Plan of paleolithic hut at Buryet
Childe 1950
”Man makes himself” (1936)
– The revolutionary past
• Childe visited Sovjetunion 1935
• Inspired by Soviet archaeology arguing
that cultural changes are the consequence
of internal processes within societies –
however he still acknowledged the
signifcance of external influences
• Idea of different revolutions in human
history:The neolithic, urban and industrial
revolution.
• Later critical to Soviet archaeology
Gordon V. Childe
(1892-1957)
The archaeology of the Western slavs
A common East European past behind the Iron Curtain
• Issues of ethnogenesis and class
struggle
• The archaeology of slavonic
societies laboratory for studying
the emergence of feudal modes of
production
Gross Raden, Mecklenburg
• Reconstructed fortified site of
Gross Raden centre of slavonic
tribe of Warnower. Example for
how archaeology in EastGermany
try to reconstruct the roots of
socialism
The elbslavonic tribes in the Middle Ages
The conquest of the slavs by medieval states
Laurits Tuxen (1894) Arkonas indtagelse af kong
Valdemar den Store og biskop Absalon 1169
Representation of god
Svatevit, Fischerinsel
Peasants fight for survival The dynamics of marxist perspectives
• Feudal society and the feudal
drama from a Marxist perspective
• Middle Ages as scene for a
continuous struggle between
different stakeholders, classes
groups who try to control the
surplus of production
• Surplus produced by peasants in
an agrarian mode of production
• Slavonic tribes in the Middle
Ages enslaved class. Later
victims of nationalist and fascist
ideology
The elbslavonic borderlands
Between external feudal agression and
internal development
The signifcance of rampart archaeology
The temple site at Gross Raden
The golden Age of proto-comunism
• Reconstruction of Gross
Raden during Glasnost
period in 1980s
• East-German regime
reluctant to changes
• Spiritual and simple
image of slavonic tribe
not spoiled by feudalism
The use of silver among the elbslavs
Hoards and social development
• Slavonic tribes at different
stages in the socio-economic
development
• Hoards as indicators of the of
tribal mode of production.
Haven´t reached the feudal
mode of production
characteristic for medieval
states
Herrmann silverhoards among elbsslavonic
tribes 11th century (DDR), Kilger 1997
Some conclusions
• Explicit use of theory in marxist archaeology
to explain changes in the past
• Social fabric of society, classes and conflicts
• Material culture studies essential to study
underlying processes in human history