World Archaeological Congress - History

History

The World Archaeological Congress was established in 1986, after the controversial 11th meeting of the International Union for Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences was banned from meeting in Southampton, Great Britain during which the Southampton City Council and other organizations funding the meeting demanded that scholars from South Africa and Namibia were banned from participation in view of Apartheid in South Africa. The British organizers complied with this demand, but the Executive Committee of UISPP ultimately ruled that it was against the organization's constitution to exclude any international scholars, and withdrew the conference. The National Secretary of the Congress, Peter Ucko, moved forward with the meeting under a new name, the World Archaeological Congress. The resulting meeting drew in 1000 people from 100 countries, with the special attempt to include people from new nations and minority groups to participate in the congress. Since that time, WAC has "constituted itself as a uniquely representative non-profit organization of worldwide archaeology that recognizes the historical and social role, and the political context, of archaeology, and the need to make archaeological studies relevant to the wider community. It especially seeks to debate and refute institutionalized views that serve the interests of a privileged few to the detriment of disenfranchised others. WAC explicitly values diversity against institutionalized mechanisms that marginalize the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples, minorities and the poor".