Synopses & Reviews
Since the eighteenth century, the concept of prehistory was exported by colonialism to far parts of the globe and applied to populations lacking written records. Prehistory in these settings came to represent primitive people still living in a state without civilization and its foremost index, literacy. Yet, many societies outside the Western world had developed complex methods of history making and documentation, including epic poetry and the use of physical and mental mnemonic devices. Even so, the deeply engrained concept of prehistory--deeply entrenched in European minds up to the beginning of the twenty-first century--continues to deny history and historical identify to peoples throughout the world.
The fourteen essays, by notable archaeologists of the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia, provide authoritative examples of how the concept of prehistory has diminished histories of other cultures outside the West and how archaeologists can reclaim more inclusive histories set within the idiom of deep histories--accepting ancient pre-literate histories as an integral part of the flow of human history.
About the Author
Peter Schmidt is Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Florida. He has engaged historical archaeology and the archaeology of ancient times in Africa for the last 45 years and his interests range across many theoretical issues and fields of practice, including ethnoarchaeology, symbolic studies, the social construction of technology, and historical representation.
Stephen Mrozowski is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he also serves as Director of the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research. He has carried out archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork in Eastern North America, Alaska, Northern Britain, Iceland and Barbados.
Table of Contents
Preface List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction: The Death of Prehistory, Peter R. Schmidt and Stephen A. Mrozowski
Part I: Histories of Prehistory
2. Prehistory's History, Alice Kehoe
3. Presencing the Past: Implications for Bridging the History-Prehistory Divide, Paul Lane
Part II: Perspectives Arising Out of Africa and India
4. Routes to History: Archaeology and Being Articulate in Eastern Africa, Jonathan Walz
5. Historical Archaeology, Colonial Entanglements, and Recuperating 'Timeless' Histories through Structuralism, Peter Schmidt
6. Swahili Historical Chronicles from an Archaeological Perspective: Bridging History, Archaeology, Coast, and Hinterland in Southern Tanzania, Matthew Pawlowicz and Adria LaViolette
7. Creating Prehistory and Protohistory: Constructing otherness and politics of contemporary indigenous populations in India, Uzma Rizvi
Part III: Perspective Arising Out of the Americas
8. History Interrupted: Doing 'Historical Archaeology' in Central America, Rosemary G. Joyce and Russell Sheptak
9. Rethinking the Archaeology of Human/Environmental: Interactions in Deep-Time History, Kent Lightfoot
10. Sites in History, History in Sites: Archaeology, historical anthropology and indigenous knowledge in the Chesapeake, Jeffrey Hantman
11. The Tyranny of Prehistory and the Search for a Deeper History, Stephen Mrozowski
12. Cultural Practice and Authenticity: The search for real Indians in New England in the 'historical' period, Rae Gould
13. Pueblo Time, Space, and History in the Aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Joseph Aguilar and Robert Preucel
14. Conclusion: Reflections on Reforming the Past, Looking to the Future, Stephen Mrozowski and Peter Schmidt
Appendix: Swahili Chronicles
Bibliography
Index