Abstract

HOCHADEL, Oliver. The multiple Eudald Carbonell: the various roles of Catalonia's most popular archaeologist. Dynamis [online]. 2013, vol.33, n.2, pp.389-416. ISSN 2340-7948.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S0211-95362013000200006.

Eudald Carbonell is mainly known for being the co-director of the Atapuerca research project, a hominid site in Northern Spain that boasts the "oldest European". In the course of his career as an archaeologist, he has become a highly visible figure, not least because of his incessant attempts to communicate his ideas to the general public. In these past four decades, Carbonell has taken on a host of diverse roles: scientific but also social and political ones. The political and scientific context of Catalonia and Spain since the early 1970s proves crucial in these activities. Carbonell's claim to belong to a "peripheral" scientific community (be it Catalan or Spanish) is a central element in the construction of these roles. At the same time, Carbonell provides an instructive example of the "medialization" of science, transforming himself from an outsider into a celebrity and ultimately into a commodity.

Keywords : Archaeology; social role; national identity; science and the media.

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