Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology

An edited collection exploring political misuse of archaeology for nationalistic purposes.

Philip L. Kohl (Edited by), Clare Fawcett (Edited by)

9780521558396, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 February 1996

344 pages, 4 maps
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm, 0.52 kg

'I recommend this book to all archaeologists both for its coverage of the history of archaeology and most importantly for what it has to say about modern issues in the practise of archaeology.' Archaeology in New Zealand

Archaeology has often been put to political use, particularly by nationalists. The case studies in this timely collection range from the propaganda purposes served by archaeology in the Nazi state, through the complex interplay of official dogma and academic prehistory in the former Soviet Union, to lesser-known instances of ideological archaeology in other European countries, in China, Japan, Korea and the Near East. The introductory and concluding chapters draw out some of the common threads in these experiences, and argue that archaeologists need to be more sophisticated about the use and abuse of their studies. The editors have brought together a distinguished international group of scholars. Whilst archaeologists will find that this book raises cogent questions about their own work, these problems also go beyond archaeology to implicate history and anthropology more generally.

Part I. Introduction: Archaeology in the Service of the State: Theoretical Considerations Philip L. Kohl and Clare Fawcett
Part II. Western Europe: 1. Civilization, barbarism, and nationalism in European archaeology Bernard Wailes and Amy L. Zoll
2. Archaeology and nationalism in Spain Margarita Diaz-Andreu
3. Nationalism and Copper Age research in Portugal during the Salazar Regime (1932–1974) Katina T. Lillios
4. Archaeology in Nazi Germany: the legacy of Faustian bargain Bettina Arnold and Henning Hassman
5. Nazi and eco-feminist prehistories: ideology and empiricism in Indo-European archaeology David W. Anthony
Part III. Eastern Europe and Eurasia: 6. Archaeology and ideology in Southeast Europe Timothy Kaiser
7. From internationalism to nationalism: forgotten pages of soviet archaeology in the 1930s and 1940s Victor A. Shnirelman
8. Postscript: Russian archaeology after the collapse of the USSR infrastructural crisis and the resurgence of old and new nationalism E. N. Chernykh
9. Nationalism, politics and the practice of archaeology in the Caucasus Philip L. Kohl and Gocha R. Tsetskhladze
Part IV. East Asia: 10. Thirty years of Chinese archaeology (1949–1979) Enzheng Tong
11. The regionalist paradigm in Chinese archaeology Lothar von Falkenhausen
12. The politics of ethnicity in prehistoric Korea Sarah M. Nelson
13. Nationalism and postwar Japanese archaeology Clare Fawcett
Part V. Commentary: 14. Promised lands and chosen peoples: the politics and poetics of archaeological narrative Neil Asher Silberman
15. Romanticism, nationalism and archaeology Bruce G. Trigger.

Subject Areas: Archaeological theory [HDA]