Forum: populism, identity politics, and the archaeology of Europe

The kind of liberal and open-minded society on which most academics rely to freely conduct their research is increasingly under threat, even within democratic societies of long standing. The issues related to populist approaches/uses of archaeology are highlighted, in different European countries. The Italian cases debated by A. Vanzetti is analyzed by proposing a general model of (archaeological) communication and discussing some particular situations: archaeological populism in Sardinia, the Calabrian passion for purported megaliths and the creation of a Celtic identity in northern Italy. While in recent times the impact of populism in Italian archaeology has so far proved limited, there are wide possibilities of action for populist thinking.