THE BONN CENTER FOR DEPENDENCY AND SLAVERY STUDIES hosts the Cluster of Excellence “Beyond Slavery and Freedom”, which aims to overcome the binary opposition of “slavery versus freedom”. We approach the phenomenon of slavery and other types of strong asymmetrical dependency from methodologically and theoretically distinct perspectives.
Monumentality is a widely used term in archaeology, both as a descriptive category for objects and structures that stand out in landscapes, and as an interpretative category, used to theorize on the ways in which societies are organized. However, the understanding on what constitutes 'monumental' varies considerably. In this workshop, we aim to
explore southern Central American monumentality through large-scale transformations of landscape and enduring materials, such as stone, which creates and represents communities' resilient relationships with their surrounding world. When seen as a result of human–nature relationships, monumentality is not interpreted as a result of social stratification among human societies. Rather, it can be seen as an attempt to anchor dependency relationships with the surrounding (meta-)physical world.