Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archaeology: Vocabulary, Symbols, and Legacy

by Bonnie Effros (Editor), Guolong Lai (Editor)

Overview

This volume addresses the entanglement between archaeology, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and war. Popular sentiment in the West has tended to embrace the adventure rather than ponder the legacy of archaeological explorers; allegations by imperial powers of "discovering" archaeological sites or "saving" world heritage from neglect or destruction have often provided the pretext for expanding political influence. Consequently, citizens have often fallen victim to the imperial war machine, seeing their lands confiscated, their artifacts looted, and the ancient remains in their midst commercialized. Spanning the globe with case studies from East Asia, Siberia, Australia, North and South America, Europe, and Africa, sixteen contributions written by archaeologists, art historians, and historians from four continents offer unusual breadth and depth in the assessment of various claims to patrimonial heritage, contextualized by the imperial and colonial ventures of the last two centuries and their postcolonial legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938770135
Publisher:	Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press
Publication date:	04/01/2018
Series:	Ideas, Debates, and Perspectives , #8
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 9.02(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bonnie Effros is the chair of history at the University of Liverpool. She was previously a professor of history, the Rothman Chair, and the director of the Center for Humanities and Public Sphere at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Guolong Lai is an associate professor of Chinese art and archaeology at the University of Florida.

Table of Contents

List of Figures ix

Contributors xiii

Introduction: The Global Reach of Imperial and Colonial Archaeology Bonnie Effros Guolong Lai xxi

I Defining Approaches to Imperial and Colonial Archaeology 1

1 Archaeology and Imperialism: From Nineteenth-Century New Imperialism to Twentieth-Century Decolonization Margarita Díaz-Andreu 3

2 German Archaeology in Occupied Europe during World War II: A Case of Colonial Archaeology? Hubert Fehr 29

II Colonialism and Nationalism 59

3 Problematizing the Encylopedic Museum: The Benin Bronzes and Ivories in Historical Context Neil Brodie 61

4 Digging up China: Imperialism, Nationalism, and Regionalism in the Yinxu Excavation, 1928-1937 Guolong Lai 83

5 "They have not changed in 2,500 years": Art, Archaeology, and Modernity in Iran Talinn Grigor 121

III Indigenous Voices 147

6 The Entanglement of Native Americans and Colonialist Archaeology in the Southwestern United States Chip Colwell 151

7 The History of Archaeology through the Eyes of Egyptians Wendy Doyon 173

8 Indigenous Voices at the Margins: Nuancing the History of French Colonial Archaeology in Nineteenth-Century Algeria Bonnie Effros 201

9 Critiquing the Discovery Narrative of Lady Mungo Ann McGrath 227

IV Archaeology, Art, and Exoticism 257

10 In the Shadow Zone of Imperial Politics: Archaeological Research in Buryatiia from the Late Nineteenth Century to the 1940s Ursula B. Brosseder 259

11 Imperial Archaeology or Archaeology of Exoticism? Victor Segalen's Expeditions in Early Twentieth-Century China Jian Xu 275

12 Four German Art Historians in Republican China Lothar Von Falkenhausen 299

V Colonial and Post-Colonial Legacies 355

13 French Archaeology and History in the Colonial Maghreb: Inheritance, Presence, and Absence Matthew M. McCarty 359

14 The Colonial Origins of Myth and National Identity in Uganda Peter R. Schmidt 383

15 Japanese Colonial Archaeology in Korea and Its Legacy Yangjin Pak 403

16 The Cloth of Colonisation: Peruvian Tapestries in the Andes and in Foreign Museums Maya Stanfield-Mazzi 427

Index 453