The Politics of the Past

P. Gathercole0415095549, 0203167899, 9780203167892, 9780203283554

This stimulating collection demonstrates the inadequacy of a history that is always written by the “winners.” Drawing on original studies from Africa, North America, Australia and the Pacific in order to make its points, The Politics of the Past emphasizes that archaeology has a crucial role to play in promoting a more balanced, eclectic approach to the past. The essays in the book are organized around four themes: the forms and consequences of the Eurocentric heritage, the conflicting perspectives of rulers and ruled, the significance of administrative and institutional rivalries, and the divide between professional and popular views of archaeology. This illuminating book aims to enrich historical and archaeological inquiry and interpretation.

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Table of contents :
Book Cover……Page 1
Title……Page 4
Contents……Page 5
List of contributors page……Page 8
Foreword……Page 10
Preface……Page 28
Introduction……Page 30
Introduction……Page 36
The Western world view in archaeological atlases……Page 40
Public presentations and private concerns: archaeology in the pages of National Geographic……Page 48
American nationality and ethnicity in the depicted past……Page 67
Afro-Americans in the Massachusetts historical landscape……Page 78
Black people and museums: the Caribbean Heritage Project in Southampton……Page 92
‘Volk und Germanentum’: the presentation of the past in Nazi Germany……Page 103
Introduction……Page 120
Maori control of the Maori heritage……Page 124
Nga Tukemata: Nga Taonga o Ngati Kahungunu (The awakening: the treasures of Ngati Kahungunu)……Page 136
God’s police and damned whores: images of archaeology in Hawaii……Page 147
Aboriginal perceptions of the past: the implications for cultural resource management in Australia……Page 159
Search for the missing link: archaeology and the public in Lebanon……Page 170
The legacy of Eve……Page 189
Museums: two case studies of reaction to colonialism……Page 201
Introduction……Page 216
Cultural education in West Africa: archaeological perspectives……Page 218
The development of museums in Botswana: dilemmas and tensions in a front-line state……Page 232
A past abandoned? Some experiences of a regional museum in Botswana……Page 243
Archaeology and museum work in the Solomon Islands……Page 253
Fifty years of conservation experience on Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile……Page 262
Introduction……Page 274
Didactic presentations of the past: some retrospective considerations in relation to the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum, d, Poland……Page 276
Reconstruction as interpretation: the example of the Jorvik Viking Centre, York……Page 286
Fort Loudoun, Tennessee, a mid-18th century British fortification: a case study in research archaeology, reconstruction, and interpretive exhibits……Page 294
Conservation and information in the display of prehistoric sites……Page 313
The epic of the Ekpu: ancestor figures of Oron, south-east Nigeria……Page 320
Conclusion: archaeologists and others……Page 331
Index……Page 344