‘Looting’ or ‘plunder’ - the appropriation of material goods as the outcome of warfare – has received renewed attention in recent years. Interest has focused on both the immediate act of looting, in contemporary warzones from Syria to the Ukraine, and its longer legacy, in respect of the way in which Western museums acquired their collections. However, the urge not just to defeat an opponent but to strip them of their possessions has been consistent throughout history.

The fact of being looted has often enhanced the status of particular objects, from the Roman practice of displaying spolia to the Native American practice of ‘counting coup’ through the acquisition of an opponent’s horse or weapons. Yet plunder also has a significant material component: the ashigaru soldiers, whose use of firearms revolutionised Japanese warfare, originated in groups of impoverished farmers following an army in order to systematically despoil the enemy. Whatever the motive, spoils of war of all kinds flowed from battlefields to the centres of civil and religious authority, traversing national boundaries and diverse geographies, communicating unexplored histories of cross-cultural contact. 

This conference seeks to bring to bear on the topic the widest range possible of thematic, disciplinary, geographical and temporal perspectives. Its goal is to disentangle specific manifestations of looting from their fundamental, underlying, anthropological motivations, allowing us to understand all aspects of plunder more effectively. It will explore how different societies throughout the ages have prohibited, regulated and encouraged the phenomenon of loot, and the historical, social, legal, cultural, and political motivations which such practices reveal.

More information, including paper submission, can be found here. Assistance with attendance expenses can be offered.


Source: https://networks.h-net.org/group/announcements/20040676/plunder-pillage-and-spoils-war-history-and-law (13.9.2024)