knowledge s Abstract "Africa is various," writes Kwame Anthony Appiah in defiance of the Eurocentric myth of a unitary and unchanging continent. The politics of archaeology in Africa has been no less marked by variety. Yet, underlying this multiplicity of historical experience are a number of common themes and ideas. This review traces the engagement between archaeology and politics in Africa through an exploration of these common themes: first, as a colonial science in the context of European conquest and the subjugation of African people and territories; second, in the context of colonial administration and the growth of settler populations; third, in the context of resistance to colonialism and a developing African nationalism; and fourth, in a postcolonial context, among whose challenges have been the growing illicit trade in antiquities originating in Africa, and (in the past two decades) the decline in direct funding for departments of archaeology in universities and museums.

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Journal of Southern African StudiesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:This article gives an account of the development of archaeology in South Africa in the period 1870-2003, focusing on key formative ideas and contexts. Taking as its theme a Foucauldian notion of 'knowledge construction', it attempts to understand archaeology as a form of social practice rooted in broader political and economic contexts. Two periods were especially important in the emergence of South African archaeology. The first was the period 1923-1948, coinciding with the local career of John Goodwin, which saw the institutionalisation of archaeology and the emergence of a specific, local conception of prehistory under the political patronage of J. C. Smuts. During these years the study of prehistory played a key role in an emergent South African national identity. The second was the period of the late 1960s and early 1970s which saw the re-emergence of the discipline following a time of comparative neglect, as part of the general cultural apparatus of a modernising apartheid state. Finally, a detailed account is given of developments post-1994, including figures for student enrolments at major teaching institutions, a survey of archaeological curricula and a survey of grants from the National Research Foundation. If (as I argue) the impulse of the discipline in periods of social transformation has been to take shelter behind hard versions of science and culture, then the challenge for a post-apartheid archaeology lies in developing socially engaged and reflexive forms of theory and practice able to speak to the complexity of contemporary circumstances.

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Climate change poses a threat to heritage globally. Decolonial approaches to climate change heritage research and practice can begin to address systemic inequities, recognise the breadth of heritage, and strengthen adaptation action globally. Main textClimate change is an increasing focus of heritage research across Europe and North America, including identification of site-specific adaptation options for heritage perservation 1, 2 . In contrast, climate change research in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited due to systemic gaps in access to funding and its associated knowledge generation and thought leadership 3,4 , and rarely concentrates on heritage 5,6 (see Fig. 1). As heritage includes all the inherited traditions, monuments, objects, places and culture, as well as contemporary activities, knowledge, meanings and behaviours that are drawn from them 7 , its preservation is crucial for all societies. Heritage can be tangible, in the case of objects or monuments, or intangible, including cultural practices and traditions, cultural identity, and sense of place. Across LMICs, tangible and intangible heritage coexist, commonly without clear delineations between them.