Centres of influence, centres of contestation : an ethnographic study of othering at prehistoric sites in Malta

Abstract

This dissertation engages two archaeological sites on the Maltese islands and their contested meaning. Ħaġar Qim and Mnajdra archaeological park located in Malta and Ġgantija megalithic park located in Gozo. This work seeks to recognise the role and function of these monuments as well as highlight the ways these sites and their spaces are seen and experienced by diverse stakeholders and in doing so it will show how narratives of the “other” are reproduced in diverse ways within these sites. The fieldwork also brought to light how space, place and identity, are a product of human-environmental relationships as well as social and political processes such as colonialism, the accumulation of capital, environmental disputes concerning the conservation and use of the sites as well as other factors of the surrounding environment, including animal protection, hunting, agriculture and tourism.