Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society
by Nadia Abu El-Haj
On This Page
Description
Archaeology in Israel is truly a national obsession, a practice through which national identity--and national rights--have long been asserted. But how and why did archaeology emerge as such a pervasive force there? How can the practices of archaeology help answer those questions? In this stirring book, Nadia Abu El-Haj addresses these questions and specifies for the first time the relationship between national ideology, colonial settlement, and the production of historical knowledge. She show more analyzes particular instances of history, artifacts, and landscapes in the making to show how archaeology helped not only to legitimize cultural and political visions but, far more powerfully, to reshape them. Moreover, she places Israeli archaeology in the context of the broader discipline to determine what unites the field across its disparate local traditions and locations. Boldly uncovering an Israel in which science and politics are mutually constituted, this book shows the ongoing role that archaeology plays in defining the past, present, and future of Palestine and Israel. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I read this in preparation for a final project in an undergraduate anthropology seminar on Collective Memory
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Decolonize Palestine's Reading List
126 works; 3 members
Author Information
3 Works 91 Members
Nadia Abu El-Haj is professor of anthropology at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is the author of Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Awards and Honors
Awards
Common Knowledge
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 65
- Popularity
- 480,019
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.80)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
