Bureaucratic Archaeology

State, Science, and Past in Postcolonial India
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-316-51239-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 17, 358 Seiten, Format (B × H): 241 mm x 163 mm, Gewicht: 618 g

Reihe: South Asia in the Social Sciences

Bureaucratic Archaeology is a multi-faceted ethnography of quotidian practices of archaeology, bureaucracy and science in postcolonial India, concentrating on the workings of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). This book uncovers an endemic link between micro-practice of archaeology in the trenches of the ASI to the manufacture of archaeological knowledge, wielded in the making of political and religious identity and summoned as indelible evidence in the juridical adjudication in the highest courts of India. This book is a rare ethnography of the daily practice of a postcolonial bureaucracy from within rather than from the outside. It meticulously uncovers the social, cultural, political and epistemological ecology of ASI archaeologists to show how postcolonial state assembles and produces knowledge. This is the first book length monograph on the workings of archaeology in a non-western world, which meticulously shows how theory of archaeological practice deviates, transforms and generates knowledge outside the Euro-American epistemological tradition.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Avikunthak, Ashish

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Regional- & Stadtgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface; 1. Anthropology of archaeology; 2. Making of the Indus-Saraswati civilization; 3. Bureaucratic hierarchy in the ASI; 4. Spatial formation of the archaeological field; 5. Epistemological formation of the archaeological site; 6. Theory of archaeological excavation; 7. Making of the archaeological artifact; 8. Performance of archaeological representations; 9. The absent excavation reports; Conclusion; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Avikunthak, Ashish
Ashish Avikunthak is an Associate Professor of Film/Media at the Harrington School of Communication and Media, the University of Rhode Island. He is a filmmaker and a cultural anthropologist. His scholarly works have been published in the Journal of Social Archaeology, Journal of Material Culture, Contributions to Indian Sociology and The Indian Economic and Social History Review among other publications. He has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and before coming to URI, he had taught at Yale University.