Against post-politics: Archaeology of the Spanish Civil War

Since the 1980s archaeological discourse has been increasingly fi lled with references to ethics and politics. During the last decade, many rchaeologists have seen in multivocality the epitome of a politically-compromised archaeology. In this paper, I argue that the concern for ethical issues and multivocality are far from being a sound basis for a critical archaeology. Th ey are rather a symptom of the postpolitic moment in which we are living. In fact, the success of ethics over politics in archaeology corroborates the fi rm rooting of neoliberal principles in the discipline. Drawing upon the example of the Spanish Civil War and Slavoj Žižek's theories, I explore the fl aws of post-processual politics. In the Spanish case, ethics, democratic fundamentalism and diff erent forms of multivocality are being used by the right to neutralize the truly critical and radical power that excavating the remains of the confl ict might imply. An authentically political archaeology is proposed here, based on exclusion, division and intolerance (sensu Žižek).

Key words: Post-processual Archaeology, Ethics, Multivocality, Spanish Civil War, Slavoj Žižek.