Role Reversal: Hindu “Ethno-Expertise” of Western Archaeological Materials
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Thierry Luginbühl
Abstract
For a number of years, the University of Lausanne has organized ethnoarchaeological research programmes in Nepal and Northern India with the aim of documenting various religious, craft, and domestic phenomena; these observations were compared with the results from the same phenomena in Western proto-historic and antique cultures. The research conducted within this framework utilizes conventional ethnoarchaeological methods and, at the same time, develops a new approach described as “ethno-expertise”. This consists of presenting archaeological documents to native specialists, for example to Brahmin priests for religious questions or to traditional potters for questions about pottery. The results of these investigations have shown the potential of the approach for generating research topics, of which certain of these can be verified by re-examining the archaeological material. In general, the native specialists were equally interested in a new identification for the archaeological documentation, particularly when it was based on references from their traditional culture, which presented analogous features with the ancient Western cultures being studied.
Abstract
For a number of years, the University of Lausanne has organized ethnoarchaeological research programmes in Nepal and Northern India with the aim of documenting various religious, craft, and domestic phenomena; these observations were compared with the results from the same phenomena in Western proto-historic and antique cultures. The research conducted within this framework utilizes conventional ethnoarchaeological methods and, at the same time, develops a new approach described as “ethno-expertise”. This consists of presenting archaeological documents to native specialists, for example to Brahmin priests for religious questions or to traditional potters for questions about pottery. The results of these investigations have shown the potential of the approach for generating research topics, of which certain of these can be verified by re-examining the archaeological material. In general, the native specialists were equally interested in a new identification for the archaeological documentation, particularly when it was based on references from their traditional culture, which presented analogous features with the ancient Western cultures being studied.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Note on Transliteration XI
- Preface 1
- Introduction 5
-
Archaeology in the Time of Empires: Unequal Negotiations and Scientific Competition
- “Masters” Against “Natives”: Edward Daniel Clarke and the “Theft” of the Eleusinian “Goddess” 19
- Russian Archaeologists, Colonial Administrators, and the “Natives” of Turkestan: Revisiting the History of Archaeology in Central Asia 31
- The “Maîtres” of Archaeology in Eastern Turkestan: Divide et Impera 87
-
“Master” / “Native”: Are There Winners? A Micro-History of Reciprocal and Non-Linear Relations
- Subverting the “Master”–“Native” Relationship: Dragomans and Their Clients in the Fin-de-Siècle Middle East 107
- In the Service of the Colonizer: Leon Barszczewski, Polish Officer in the Tsarist Army 121
- “The General and his Army”: Metropolitans and Locals on the Khorezmian Expedition 137
-
Taming the Other’s Past: The Eurocentric Scientific Tools
- From the Emic to the Etic and Back Again: Archaeology, Orientalism, and Religion from Colonial Sri Lanka to Switzerland 177
- Legislation and the Study of the Past: The Archaeological Survey of India and Challenges of the Present 197
- Early Archaeology in a “Native State”: Khans, Officers, and Archaeologists in Swat (1895–1939), with a Digression on the 1950s 213
-
The Forging of Myths: Heroic Clichés and the (Re-)Distribution of Roles
- Archaeologists in Soviet Literature 239
- Archaeology and the Archaeologist on Screen 255
-
Reversal of Roles in Postcolonial and Neocolonial Contexts: From a Relation between “Masters” and “Subordinates” to “Partnership”?
- From Supervision to Independence in Archaeology: The Comparison of the Iranian and the Afghan Strategy 291
- The Postcolonial Rewriting of the Past in North and South Korea Following Independence (1950s–1960s) 307
- Excavating in Iran and Central Asia: Cooperation or Competition? 323
- Publishing an Archaeological Discovery astride the “North”–“South” Divide (On an Example from Central Asia) 343
- Role Reversal: Hindu “Ethno-Expertise” of Western Archaeological Materials 367
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgements V
- Contents VII
- Note on Transliteration XI
- Preface 1
- Introduction 5
-
Archaeology in the Time of Empires: Unequal Negotiations and Scientific Competition
- “Masters” Against “Natives”: Edward Daniel Clarke and the “Theft” of the Eleusinian “Goddess” 19
- Russian Archaeologists, Colonial Administrators, and the “Natives” of Turkestan: Revisiting the History of Archaeology in Central Asia 31
- The “Maîtres” of Archaeology in Eastern Turkestan: Divide et Impera 87
-
“Master” / “Native”: Are There Winners? A Micro-History of Reciprocal and Non-Linear Relations
- Subverting the “Master”–“Native” Relationship: Dragomans and Their Clients in the Fin-de-Siècle Middle East 107
- In the Service of the Colonizer: Leon Barszczewski, Polish Officer in the Tsarist Army 121
- “The General and his Army”: Metropolitans and Locals on the Khorezmian Expedition 137
-
Taming the Other’s Past: The Eurocentric Scientific Tools
- From the Emic to the Etic and Back Again: Archaeology, Orientalism, and Religion from Colonial Sri Lanka to Switzerland 177
- Legislation and the Study of the Past: The Archaeological Survey of India and Challenges of the Present 197
- Early Archaeology in a “Native State”: Khans, Officers, and Archaeologists in Swat (1895–1939), with a Digression on the 1950s 213
-
The Forging of Myths: Heroic Clichés and the (Re-)Distribution of Roles
- Archaeologists in Soviet Literature 239
- Archaeology and the Archaeologist on Screen 255
-
Reversal of Roles in Postcolonial and Neocolonial Contexts: From a Relation between “Masters” and “Subordinates” to “Partnership”?
- From Supervision to Independence in Archaeology: The Comparison of the Iranian and the Afghan Strategy 291
- The Postcolonial Rewriting of the Past in North and South Korea Following Independence (1950s–1960s) 307
- Excavating in Iran and Central Asia: Cooperation or Competition? 323
- Publishing an Archaeological Discovery astride the “North”–“South” Divide (On an Example from Central Asia) 343
- Role Reversal: Hindu “Ethno-Expertise” of Western Archaeological Materials 367
