The Archaeology of Identities: A Reader

Description

The Archaeology of Identities brings together seventeen seminal articles from this exciting new discipline in one indispensable volume for the first time. Editor Timothy Insoll expertly selects a cross-section of contributions by leading authorities to form a comprehensive and balanced representation of approaches and interests. Issues covered include: gender and sexuality ethnicity, nationalism and caste age ideology disability. Chapters are thematically arranged and are contextualized with lucid summaries and an introductory chapter, providing an accessible introduction to the varied selection of case studies included and archaeological materials considered from global sources. The study of identity is increasingly recognized as a fundamental division of archaeological enquiry, and has recently become the focus of a variety of new and challenging developments. As such, this volume will fast become the definitive sourcebook in archaeology of identities, making it essential reading for students, lecturers and researchers in the field. Book Cover Title Copyright Contents Contributors Acknowledgements Figures and tables Chapter 1 Introduction: Configuring identities in archaeology Part I. General perspectives, ethnicity, and nationalism An introduction Chapter 2 Archaeologies of identity Chapter 3 Discourses of identity in the interpretation of the past Chapter 4 The politics of identity in archaeology Part II. Gender and age An introduction Chapter 5 Girling the girl and boying the boy: The production of adulthood in ancient Mesoamerica Chapter 6 Engendering children, engendering archaeology Chapter 7 The constitution of archaeological evidence: Gender politics and science Part III. Sexuality An introduction Chapter 8 Feminisms, queer theories, and the archaeological study of past sexualities Chapter 9 Faience goddesses and ivory bull-leapers: The aesthetics of sexual difference at Late Bronze Age Knossos Chapter 10 Beyond Mother Earth and Father Sky: Sex and gender in Ancient Southwestern visual arts and ethnography Part IV. The body An introduction Chapter 11 Accessing the inaccessible: Disability and archaeology Chapter 12 Hidden or overlooked? Where are the disadvantaged in the skeletal record? Chapter 13 Archaeology’s humanism and the materiality of the body Part V. Class, caste, ideology, and religion An introduction Chapter 14 Archaeology and the invisible man: The role of slavery in the production of wealth and social class in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, 1820 to 1870 Chapter 15 The archaeological visibility of caste: An introduction Chapter 16 Huitzilopochtli’s conquest: Aztec ideology in the archaeological record Chapter 17 Ritual and rationality: Some problems of interpretation in European archaeology Chapter 18 Changing identities in the Arabian Gulf: Archaeology, religion, and ethnicity in context Index