- concept of a scottish nation as
we now understand it is
meaningless
Nota:
- National perspective is no more than contemporary evidence for the purposes of display
- some aspects of prehistoric past may have relevanace to the national identity today - myths - important in the underlying national identity
- Cannot understand other cultures purely through one cultural identity .e Romans - never really made it further than the wall
Brooch for example - Hunterstone Brooch -
Nota:
Celtic Goldsmiths art, filigree - anglo Saxon practices - etc Irish influences - hence use of the term scottish refers to the geographic entitiy not the early historic group
- Often objects represent an amalgamation of several traditions defying simple ethnic labelling
- terms like 'Romans, Picts and Vikings' superficial
Nationalism
Concept of Nationhood
Ethnicity replacing race
Archaeological traditions
Case Studies
Nazi Germany
Nationalist Germany - extreme form of nationalism practised 1930/40s
Gustav Kossina - 1911 - writing that the concept of archaeological culture emerged
in Germany and Russia - 19th c 20thc - Kossina - mapped the distribution of the
types of artefacts and overlapped these with early maps that showed the
distribution of tribes and nations in through linguistic construction
Kossina concluded that North Germany was the homeland of the Indo
Europeans (Aryan) Race who were the bearers of battle axe culture, and who
conquered the primitive
Ideas used for
nationalist/socialist case for
aggressive militaristic
foreign policy
Hitler grasped this concept of ethnic - German volk -
he saw the core of the volk as the aryan nuclei who
were the pure breed of Germans. The Volkisch concept
separated people into races of superior and inferior
quality
Increased the boundary of them and us i.e
blamed jews for Germany's ills and passed on
nationalist thoughts via education
Nation became a coat hangrer for Hitler
to hang out ideological features i.e
facism, Social darwinism and
nauturism
GOAL = PURE NATION STATE
China
Don Fowler - Modern China - he believed that archaeology is used as a plitical education of the people -
emphasising the 1980 history as the class struggle that develpped through stages of hman history - to
maintain communism?
Internet web page
nationalism - the pursuit of cultural identity and
political power by religious, ethnic or national
groups
How can the past help nationalism?
create a past - real or
imagined - that justifies a
national claim to territory
create a "how great we once were" mentality that increases
social cohesion or the desire to sacrifice for the nation.
European views of nationalism
Concepts of nationhood - product of the modern world
Archaeological historians imagined prehistoric
ethnicities back projecting modernist concepts of
nationhood
Ethnicity replace race"?
Ethnicity is culturally flexible/as a racial caetegroy it is sometimes thought to be absolute
Romano British view of nationalism
National boundaries no significance but have influence some research traditions
In particular period - tend to explore own
intellectual traditions i.e Southern English -
Roman invasion of the southern lowlands -
forts,towns and homes.
French view of nationalism
More interested in the resistance to Rome and the
assimilation of the Roman culture by indigenous people
Emphasis temples and rural settlements
North western Iberia - focus on native sites rather than other
Archaeology, nationalism and ethnicity
Stewart Piggott
Important figure in the archaeological
establishment at Edinburgh
Excavated many sites in Scotland
Ancient greece , classical heritage and
the modern Greeks: aspects of
nationalism in museum exhibitions
Early association of archaeology with nationalism
in the 18th c gathered momentum in the 19th c
Arose in the collapse of the Ottoman Emipre
Nationalism preaches the continuity and homogenity of political units
Greek archaeology must not be viewed as a separate/isolated phenomenon
Hellenism - idealised ancinet Greece as a birthplace of teh European spirit nd Western civilisation
Knowledge of the classical world received
through classical education
Cultural imperialism - imposed on the past and present their
own account of what consituted Greek Culture
New state society reinforced by the constant building
of its complete national identity and tradition
In America Many displaysstress the purely commerical value
of Greek archaelogy presenting the artefacts as valuabhle
trade commodoties
'Search for alexander exhibition' in Washington USA 1980's caused a stir - the search
centred on the continuity of the ancient and modern Greek culture. Smoething which
Greece wanted tomaintin unquestioningly
Adressed questions of ethnic identity within the general spectrum of the
totality of Greek national identity - in relation to Macedonian debate
Creation of the Greek nation's sense of identity was an act of self
portraiture incorporating elements of Greek heritage , language
literature religion, folklore, Byzantine and christian traditions
Much Greek culture and politics occured within notion of ethnos
Wanted to create an unbroken continuity with the classical
and Byzantine past
Greek culture still engaged constantly
in an assessment of whether the
timeless values of its ancient seld are
still intelligible
museum exhibition embroiled in politics and poetics
past not reconstructed but written according to interpreters - no
abslute exhibition - stage to project the self and antional identity
Travelling exhibitions
often funcition as as
authentic illustrated
textbooks and as mirrors
of Greece
Examination of the use of the past in a historical perspective
can help to eliucidate attitudes and facilitate the decoding of
hidden messages in current representations
Tourism, nationalism and archaeology are
historically linked in complex ways -
archaeology used by natonalism and
popularised through tourism
BRUCE TRIGGER
archaeological research is shaped by
riles that particular nation states play,
economically, culturally, socially and
politically
Europeans intiated the archaeological research - some governments conrtol the
interpretation of archaeological data
Most archaeological tradition are nationalistic in orientation i.e Czech
turned to archaeology and historical roots, to glorify their past - and
to encourage resistance to Russian and Turkish threats
Other emphasise their historic roots rather than any other ... i.e Iran and Egypt -
emphasise pre -slavic tribes periods when nationalistic and secular politics prevailed
Mexico - Since revolution in 1910 - official policy to encourage archaeologists, to
increase knowledge and public awareness of pre-hispanic civilisations of the country
To promote nationl unity
China-
Study of the past was seen as reactionary, leading to the disruption of
archaeological excavations and publications and some sites
Today extensively used to cultivate
national dignity and confidence adding
to socialist ideology
Interpreting the past in terms of a Marxist perspectives and lauding cultural achievments
Archaeologists want to say that northern CHINA was not the only centre of
cultural development
Vietnamese archoaeologists
Germany Nazi - failed to attract support from archaeologists
elsewhere- particularly because of their parochial nature
Function of nationalist
archaeology is to bolster pride etc
MARGA DIAZ-ANDREU
mperialist objectives can reinforce nationalism
Examples - DAVID MATTINGLY 1996- explored the nature of archaeological work undertaken by the italians and French in North Africa c19/c20
At the time of Mussolini - the italians aimed to draw upon examples
of classical Rome to establish a new empire in North Africa and the
French would also be involved
French and Italians drew efforts on the idea that they were direct linear
inheritors of implerial efforts of Rome to establish a new empire in
Northern Africa
They located and mapped the remains of Roman Imperial
infrstructure in ancient lands
Archaeologists focussed on Roman towns, forts, frontier structures roads and irrigation
Laid claim to former control of
territories by an earlier group of
colonisers. Hence the Italians could
justify land grabs
Explored the way that Roman dominated the lands and found that
the contemporary imperial efforts worked with more effect
In the countries that made up northern Africa North East,
Roman empire Britain and Italy were all conflated
an archaeology is not in favour in all areas - for example - The popularity of classical remains to wealthy western tourists
encourage northern Africa and the Near East to maintain impressive remains and to make them accessible to visitors
Colonial myths did not die entirely with the ending of former colonial rule from 1960-1990
MICHEL DIETLER 2006
Drew upon the direct use of the idea of celtic diaspora - exploited by contemporary people in New Zealand and USA
Claims that Megaliths, stone carvings and hillforts demonstrated celtic
presence on land prior to the settlement of contemporary indigenous community
Labelling archaeologies as nationalistic, colonial or imperial one can simplify the
specifics of the ways that archaeologists have operated