Unmasking Ideology in Imperial and Colonial Archaeology

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 "e;discovering"e; archaeological sites or "e;saving"e; 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.

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.

Table of Contents Ch. 1: Archaeology and Imperialism: From Nineteenth-Century New Imperialism to Twentieth-Century Decolonization byMargarita Diaz-Andreu Ch. 2: German Archaeology in Occupied Europe during World War II: A Case Of Colonial Archaeology? byHubert Fehr Ch. 3: Problematizing the Encylopedic Museum: The Benin Bronzes and Ivories in Historical Context byNeil Brodie Ch. 4: Digging up China: Imperialism, Nationalism, and Regionalism in the Yinxu Excavation, 1928-1937 byGuolong Lai Ch. 5: "They have not changed in 2,500 years": Art, Archaeology and Modernity in Iran byTalinn Grigor Ch. 6: The Entanglement of Native Americans and Colonialist Archaeology in the Southwestern United States byChip Colwell Ch. 7: The History of Archaeology through the Eyes of Egyptians byWendy Doyon Ch. 8: Indigenous Voices at the Margins: Nuancing the History of French Colonial Archaeology in Ninteenth-Century Algeria, 1830-1870 byBonnie Effros Ch. 9: Critiquing the Discovery Narrative of Lady Mungo byAnn McGrath Ch. 10: In the Shadow Zone of Imperial Politics: Archaeological Research in Buryatia from the Late Nineteenth Century to the 1940s byUrsula Brosseder Ch. 11: Imperial Archaeology or an Archaeology of Exoticism? Victor Segalen's Expeditions in Early Twentieth-Century China byJian Xu Ch. 12: Four German Art Historians in Republican China byLothar von Falkenhausen Ch. 13: French Archaeology and History in the Colonial Maghreb: Inheritance, Presence, and Absence byMatthew McCarty Ch. 14: The Colonial Origins of Myth and National Identity in Uganda byPeter R. Schmidt Ch. 15: Japanese Colonial Archaeology in Korea and Its Legacy byYangjin Pak Ch. 16: The Cloth Colonization: Peruvian Tapestries in the Andes and in Foreign Museums byMaya Stanfield-Mazzi