Post-processualism and Biblical Archaeology

In the last 20 years or so, there has been increasing awareness within the archaeological community that our cultural lens has a considerable affect on how we ask archaeological questions. Archaeological remains are now conceptualized by many workers in the fields as vehicles for how we construct our modern identities; for example, French national pride played a large role in the way that monuments to the ancient Gauls were constructed at sites like Alesia, where Vercingetorix made his last stand against Julius Caesar in the 1st century BCE. This ancient Gallic general is really much more than just a figure from history, now - he symbolizes French resistance to a foreign invader.

In this respect, the past becomes part of our modern cultural capital, and so has value not merely in the abstract, as part of some ostensibly objective history lesson, but instead as part of our subjective, constant creation of identity. This is no small thing in an increasingly globalized world where preservation versus progress creates a near-constant tension. In archaeology, this reflexive awareness that we create our past by how we frame our historical and archaeological questions has a name: Post-Processualism. Not only do Post-Processualists see the past as a cultural resource of the present, they also insist that due to our own inherent cultural lenses that we can never be fully certain that we have accurately re-constructed the past through archaeological remains. Their logic is as follows: if a researcher's cultural lens causes her to make certain choices about what questions to research, then other questions will remain unanswered, that might have provided a different picture. Further, the interpretation of a site is going to filtered through her cultural lens.

Another example of how these issues play out in archaeology can be found in the Middle East today. There is perhaps no topic that inspires more impassioned debate in the West than Biblical Archaeology. We appear to be (pardon the pun) hell-bent on tying concrete archaeological remains to the histories recounted in the Bible. Furthermore, the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis adds another, often acid-coated - layer to this debate. For a good look at how the fur can fly, follow the jump to an very interesting look at the New Biblical Archaeology of today, framed by the conflict in the Middle East.

The end of religion?

I recently read an article about a study which concluded that in nine countries (Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland) the likelihood of someone identifying themselves as religious was very low, and it's likely that fewer and fewer people will identify as religious in the future until there none at all.

Curiously, this was not an anthropological study, instead the research team was led by a physicist and a mathematician. They created a mathematical model based on the idea that the larger a social group is, the more attractive it is to join and the more social utility there is for being associated with that group. To me, that idea seems similar to way we talked about dialects earlier in the course, and how there is less prestige to be gained with a regional accent than if you can make your speech into a more neutral American style, like that of a T.V. news anchor.

Do you think the conclusions of this study might have been different if the research team had an anthropologist on board? What other factors of human behavior complicate the way we identify ourselves, other than a desire to be a member of the majority group?

Code-Switching

Because sometimes you have to change the tone of your voice depending on who you're talking to.

Poles in Lithuania want their 'w' back

Here is an interesting article about the intersection of language and identity. Though Lithuania is a small country the size of West Virginia, it has always been ethnically diverse and parts of it were previously under Polish rule. Under Lithuanian law people must use the Lithuanian alphabet to write their names and street names can only be in Lithuania. This is a problem for the Polish minority that uses letters such as "w" that don't exist in the Lithuanian language. Combine that with tension over an oil and gas refinery and you have the makings of ethnic tensions.

To read more about this, CLICK HERE