e-Book Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and Consecration of National Pasts download

Kohl, P. L., Kozelsky, M. and Ben-Yehuda, N. (editors)
2007 Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and
Consecration of National Pasts. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Kohl, Kozelsky, and Ben-Yehuda's co-edited volume seeks to continue an archaeological conversation previously presented in an earlier volume co-edited by Kohl and Fawcett (1995) regarding intersections between archaeology and nationalist politics. In this more recent effort, several authors trained in non-western archaeological traditions attempt to pick up the archaeology/nationalism gauntlet and tell the stories of nationalist politics involving archaeology from the other side of the perceived western/non-western colonialist dichotomy. Several authors demonstrate, for example, that nationalist agendas can impact the professional quality of archaeological research. This process can result in distortions of the past, even when the forces driving those distortions are grounded in anticolonialist or "liberationist" aspirations (Kohl et al. 2007*).

Tackling the complicated intertwining of archaeology, nationalism, and even religion in the several sections of the book, the contributors to Selective Remembrances address separate but remarkably parallel developments in Russia and eastern Europe, the Near East, Israel and Palestine, and South/Southeast Asia. One notable similarity between many of the volume's contributions is the role of colonialism and postcolonialist fallouts in spurring the developments of nationalist archaeologies (for example, Bernhardsson 2007 and Kozelsky 2007). Even in discussions of countries, such as Thailand, that were never under direct colonial rule, readers are reminded that nationalist archaeologies are often a defensive response to the threat of colonialism or domination from the west in general (Shoocongdej 2007). As one author states, however, historians of archaeology such as Bruce Trigger have argued that the relationship between archaeology and the formulation of national identities is not inherently negative when such relations emancipate peoples subjugated under colonialism or tyranny (Trigger 1995:277; Ziadeh-Seely 2007).

One aspect of Selective Remembrances that is at once both disturbing and refreshing is the palpable contradictions between contributed chapters. In fact, the disagreements implied between such adverse fields of study as Israeli and Palestinian archaeologies provide for the reader a nuanced set of perspectives on the complicated role archaeology can play in forming perceived national identities or justifying state undertakings (Baram 2007; Ben-Yehuda 2007; Feige 2007; Ziadeh-Seely 2007). That many such developments are relayed by archaeologists trained in the non-western traditions under discussion provides context for the reader and is a great strength of the volume. What the book cannot hope to provide, however, is any simple answers to many of the debates it highlights.

From the use of archaeology to legitimize dictatorship (as in Sadam Hussein's Iraq), to the use of archaeology to resist Western colonialism (as in Thailand), to the convenient tracing of modern ethnic power dynamics into the ancient past (as in Romania and India), Selective Remembrances uses broad strokes to relay some measure of the complexity of archaeology's interconnectedness to modern politics (Bernhardsson 2007; Niculescu 2007; Ratnagar 2007; Shoocongdej 2007). As historians such as Michel-Rolph Trouillot (1995) have argued, we must remember that our conceptions of the past are as much a product of modern political climates as they are true to the past itself. There is no "past," per se, but merely our own renditions of it. When nations, leaders, religious groups, or any other entity with political implications use the past to legitimate their existence in the present, we must ask ourselves: who stands to gain? And what manipulation of the past permits such statements?

Works Cited
Kohl, P. and C. Fawcett (editors)
1995 Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Kohl, P. L., Kozelsky, M. and Ben-Yehuda, N. (editors)
2007 Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and
Consecration of National Pasts. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Trigger, B. G.
1995 Romanticism, Nationalism, and Archaeology. In Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology, edited by P. Kohl and C. Fawcett, pp. 263-279. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Trouillot, M.-R.
1995 Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Beacon Press, Boston.

*All publications from 2007 cited in this review are sections within:
Kohl, P. L., Kozelsky, M. and Ben-Yehuda, N. (editors)
2007 Selective Remembrances: Archaeology in the Construction, Commemoration, and
Consecration of National Pasts. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

very interesting look at some of the psuedo-history going on as well as the power structures in other cultures in relation to their national identity and need to identify themselves as a people. I would not recommend this as a kindle book especially if it is being used as a textbook as the page numbers are incredibly different from the hard copy.