Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts
Philip L. Kohl, Mara Kozelsky, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda
Abstract
When political geography changes, how do reorganized or newly formed states justify their rule and create a sense of shared history for their people? Often, the chapters in this book reveal, they turn to archaeology, employing the field and its findings to develop nationalistic feelings and forge legitimate distinctive national identities. Examining such relatively new or reconfigured nation-states as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, India, and Thailand, the book shows how states invoke the remote past to extol the glories of specific peoples or prove claims to ancestral homelands. ... More
When political geography changes, how do reorganized or newly formed states justify their rule and create a sense of shared history for their people? Often, the chapters in this book reveal, they turn to archaeology, employing the field and its findings to develop nationalistic feelings and forge legitimate distinctive national identities. Examining such relatively new or reconfigured nation-states as Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, India, and Thailand, the book shows how states invoke the remote past to extol the glories of specific peoples or prove claims to ancestral homelands. Religion has long played a key role in such efforts, and the contributors take care to demonstrate the tendency of many people, including archaeologists themselves, to view the world through a religious lens—which can be exploited by new regimes to suppress objective study of the past and justify contemporary political actions.
Keywords:
political geography,
states,
shared history,
nationalistic feelings,
national identities,
nation-states,
ancestral homelands,
religion,
new regimes,
archaeology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780226450582 |
| Published to Chicago Scholarship Online: March 2013 |
DOI:10.7208/chicago/9780226450643.001.0001 |
