Nostalgia

(en castellano)
Dedicado a la Rosa del pequeño príncipe ;)

¿Que pasa cuando se murre el ultimo herrador de la aldea? ¿Cuanto es lo que se pierde?
¿Deberemos nosotros llorar esa perdida? ¿O es algo natural? ¿Los tiempos?
¿Deberemos encerrar toda la realidad en un museo? ¿Cerramos todo lo que nos gusta y que tenemos miedo de perder en un lugar donde jamás pueda huir?

Cinema Paradiso es una película que nos habla de la Nostalgia. De la nostalgia de un modo de vida, de un lugar, de la gente, de un Amor…
Hay tres historias que creo son particularmente bellas en esta película.

1ª Hacia mucho tiempo existía un soldado que se enamoró de una princesa. Armando-se de coraje el soldado se acercó un día a la princesa declarando su amor. La princesa tan imprecionada con lo que escuchara decide que le va a dar una oportunidad. El soldado debe estar cien noches esperando por ella, bajo su ventana. El soldado acepta el repto. Y ahí está, noche tras noche, suportando el frío, la lluvia, y todo lo demás. Pasan las noches y las lunas. Lentamente para quien espera. A lo mejor demasiado de espacio. Hasta que llega la 99º noche y el soldado que tan cerca está del amor de la princesa desiste. En la película el viejo proyector di:”Y no me preguntes cual es la moral de la historia que yo no la sé. Piensa-la tu se quieres”

2º Las más de cien noches que Salvatore va esperando por Elena, que lo deja también al frío. Como esto es asumidamente una película Elena en la última noche va por el chico al cinema Paradiso. Se vive una pasión única. Un amor de verano que termina un día cuando Salvador se va a la mili. Jamás se van a volver a ver. A lo mejor es esa nostalgia que va a permitir que este amor “no termine mai”.

3º El modo como el viejo proyectista aconseja a Salvador a que se vaya y que no vuelva jamás. “Viviendo aquí día à día, tú crés que eres el centro del mundo. Tu crés que nada vá nunca a cambiar. Entonces sales: un año, dos años. Cuando vuelves, todo ha cambiado. El hilo se ha roto. Lo que has venido a descubrir no está ahí. Lo que ha sido tuyo se ha ido. Tienes que ir-te por un largo tiempo…muchos años… antes que puedas volver y descubrir a la tuya gente. La tierra donde has nacido. Pero ahora, no. Eso no es posible. Ahora eres mas ciego que yo.”

Las Nostalgia solo viene se perdemos a algo. No hay lugar para ella sin ese sentimiento que es la perdida.
A portugueses y a gallegos eso es todavía mas claro con los sentimientos de Saudade y Morriña.
En la sociedad del futuro y del mañana, no parece haber lugar para la Nostalgia. El Nostálgico es lo que se queda parado en el tiempo, muriendo mientras está vivo.
Es que de facto no hay espacio para la Nostalgia? Es que de verdad es algo así de tan negativo?

VICTORIA!!!!!! :) (Statue in Sheffield university garden park)

Next Morning. Very few seats free in the Dwelling session :) (photo by VOJ).
It's not easy to be in the heart of Britannia and to organise and present something. We can feel the pressure and the difference between the worlds.
I could actually feel the room environment each time that I went on “stage”. In many faces we could see the same question: “Who is this?”
Thank god that there were old friends from other international congresses and projects that helped “mooding” things better (Thanks Lesley, Paul and Gail).
During all time either the coffee was very strong or we managed to organize a very good session, since we can see very few people sleeping in the auditorium :)
I always measure the success of something like this not by the amount of people that give us the congratulations, but for the amount that is with interest in the room.
In this case it was really a success.
Soon the papers will be published in the Journal of Iberian Archaeology, in a special edition devoted to the Dwelling and Architectures.
The tour of the architectures project in “Her Majesty lands” as not ended. Soon we will be interacting with more people in other places.

Sheffield by night
You can't imagine how many people go in the street with very few clothing.
For a Portuguese Sheffield is cold, but for English girls...
Sandals, short skirts and dresses with no sleeves! In the street with 2ºC or something like that.
I didn't take any photos because I was to cold :)
Sheffield as an excellent university kind of night. Lot of pubs and places to go, with lot of people in the streets every day of the week.
I lack a picture that can tell this feeling. It remembers me much of the Spanish “movida” – going from place to place, pub, clubs, seeing lot of different things in each night (each of this 4 nights was different:)).
It would also be a long blog if I would show the photos of all the pubs and clubs that we visited. From live bands playing to India flavoured clubs, there is a big pick.
It remembers much the Coimbra or Salamanca nights. Mainly because they are also “small city’s” with a university night life.

Mariana's Movie: Excelent!!!!!!! (Mariana is the one standing up against the wall)
Mariana entered a session about enterprise archaeology.
While everyone was talking about “how to be a entrepreneur” and “how to have success”, with Richard Branson as a model, Mariana had the courage of showing the other face of contract archaeology, interviewing people that ended their graduate courses and that deal with the daily life of bulldozers and construction works.
All show the delusion of an archaeology of despair, which people try to fill with a coming back to the University to do Masters.
In many ways it challenges us to think what kind of archaeology are we doing as the interviews are interpolated with citations from the works of post-modern archaeology thinkers as Tilley, Hodder and Shanks.
“Were are you going archaeology?” we could think in the end.
Another thing why I liked so much this presentation was the use of video.
In a long time ago me and Alexandra did a documentary movie about the Guadiana engravings.
We presented it at Évora in the "Sinais de Pedra" conference.
It was a very emotional thing that make many people cry. Not in a maudlin, "easy tears" way.
Our purppose at that time, was in fact open the way for a different archaeology that is not only made by the written and spoken word.The Emotion Archaeology.
I shall be back to this subject in this blog. I think that emotions are a field to explore, from storytelling to experiencing. There is a wide field to be explored by archaeologists.

TAG Reception Party
Sarah Ralph in her very interesting paper about feasting in Iron Age, alerted us to the role of feasting in general in all times.
It’s a role of gathering and of joining forces, which can be led for a purpose, as for example the building a precinct.
In gatherings like the TAG I also think in the relationship of feasting and working. They are so interconnected.
The photo is not the best example as we all know that a congress cocktail can only be bearable after some drinks (the champagne they were serving did the effect very rapidly which was just perfect:)).
But the party that the other photo documents, show’s a little better the idea of a feast. There was no food but…
Party is as crucial element as to work and to think. I always remember dinners and party’s as the places were we get to know better people. That’s a place of sharing which is also important to the strength of human relations. In congresses as well as in excavations.
As for example the nice dinner in the Italian restaurant, were we revised some of the best story’s of British archaeology (remembering people as Louis Binford and Gordon V. Child in funny anecdotes).
Feasting as well as story telling as a big role in society that as to come out again.
That raised me also another question: Can feasting and story telling be simulated and massified?

First things first. Arrival at Sheffield: PUB!!!!!
The Pub experience is one of my favourites. You have this place were you can have many different kinds of beer, in Pints and were you can have a nice time with your friends, talking and joking and so on.
Each country as these magical places of gathering. In Spain for example it’s the bar with Tapas. The experience of going out from work at 19:00 and two have a “caña” with some friends eating something like chips with hot sauce. There is nothing like it.
Every one of these places evokes a ritual of gathering, which turns life in a city into a different feeling, helping us to get life along. A really cosy place.

Estádio do Dragão F.C.Porto - 3 x Penafiel - 1 Ah, finalmente o gosto do Dragão :D Um grande Obrigado Mike. Feliz Natal.