Migration is an established topic in archaeology, approached by researchers in multiple ways. We argue, however, that new ways of thinking are needed to understand migration in new ways in relation to new results coming from ancient DNA studies and other archaeometric analysis. We apply a transdisciplinary approach and engage with (critical) migration studies, critical heritage studies and archaeology to unwrap essential theoretical aspects of migration. Based on our results, we propose a conceptual/theoretical framework as our contribution to migration studies in archaeology.

The future is an important new topic for archaeology. Archaeologists do not only study past futures but are also concerned with future pasts and in particular with the impact of their work on future societies. Drawing on the notion of “heritage futures”, archaeological heritage is claimed to contribute to sustainable development and address challenges posed by climate change, human conflicts, and others.

Micro-society experimental setups are increasingly used to infer aspects of human behavioural evolution. A key part of human society today is our dependence on, and use of, technology–whether simple (such as a knife) or complex (such as the technology that underpins AI). Previously, two groups of researchers used an abstracted-wheel experiment to explore the evolution of human technical behaviour, reaching fundamentally different outcomes. Whereas one group saw their results as indicating social learning only (void of causal understanding), the other inferred non-social technical reasoning as part of human technical behaviour. Here we report on the third generation of the micro-society abstracted-wheel experiment. We argue that causal reasoning is inseparable from both social learning and technical reasoning, and that these traits probably co-evolved into the current human sociotechnical niche. Based on our outcomes, we present a critical assessment of what this experiment may (or may not) reveal about the evolution of human technical behaviour. We show that the abstracted-wheel experiment reflects behavioural output only, instead of testing for cognition. It is therefore limited in its ability to inform on aspects of human cognitive evolution, but it can provide useful insights into the interrelatedness of social learning, technical reasoning, and causal reasoning. Such a co-evolutionary insight has the potential to inform on aspects of human socio-technical evolution throughout the Pleistocene.

Over more than a century of museum and heritage practices, it has been maintained that we need to protect and preserve the past for the benefit of future generations. Emerging discussions in Heritage Studies on heritage futures have started to challenge the axiomatic nature of this rhetoric, showing that preservation is not always the best (or sole) way to address the future in museum and heritage practices. Here we draw on these emerging discussions to address museum futures and other heritage futures. We elaborate on examples of possible futures in museums and heritage practices, including aspects of security policy and mobilization of civil societies in conflict situations, museum and heritage activism for the future, climate change and ways to embrace change to accommodate for sustainable futures. From our results we see variation in how futures are anticipated in museum and heritage practices, including addressing futures as: (1) unspoken and implicit; (2) as a contemporary agenda to act from; or (3) as an unfinished process that informs contemporary practices.

I detta kapitel är ordet kultur i interkulturalitet i fokus. När kultur används som utgångspunkt för lärande i skolan, görs det ofta utifrån tankar om kulturell identitet som präglad av ursprung och härkomst. Detta är ett allt förenkelt sätt att förstå kultur på. Kultur förändras genom hela livet. Med nya erfarenheter och kunskaper utvecklas vi alla och med det vår kultur. Kapitlet handlar om att undervisning om kultur i skolan behöver ge eleverna fördjupade kunskaper om detta. Det innebär att undervisa om vad kultur är och vad kultur gör i samhället och varför det är viktigt för eleverna att förstå det.