Internationalism in the invisible college

Abstract

This article analyses the effect that ideology may have in the relationships established between archaeologists of opposing political persuasions. It is argued that modern historiographers’ assumption that archaeologists holding different ideologies could not possibly support each other needs urgent revision. It is proposed that, for the decades immediately before and after World War II, the disregard of the political aspect when dealing with colleagues can partly be explained by the widely held belief in the absolute value of science, especially at a time when, in the case of prehistoric archaeology, the discipline was being professionalized. In this article the links established between prehistoric archaeologists of opposing political ideologies is framed within the discussion of invisible colleges, the professional networks which form unofficial power bases within academia. It is suggested not only that they seem to be more interested in the control of academic resources than in political convictions, but that invisible colleges also operate at an international level. Thus, invisible colleges in each country may be linked with others elsewhere, even when their members live under completely different political regimes. As the basis for the discussion this article uses the correspondence between three prehistoric archaeologists: the Marxist Gordon Childe (1892-1957), the Francoist Lluís Pericot (1899-1978) and, to a lesser extent, the Falangist (i.e. Spanish Fascist) Julio Martínez Santa-Olalla (1905-72).