NES 4620 - [Archaeology of Orientalism]

(crosslisted)
(also ANTHR 4120, ARKEO 4120, CLASS 4760)(GHB) (HA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

Next offered 2014-2015.

L. Khatchadourian.

What role has archaeology and its peer disciplines played in the making of “the East?” And how has material culture been implicated in the genealogies of discourse, from ancient texts to modern media, that collectively conjure the East into existence? This course probes the archaeology of Orientalism in two respects. Most immediately, it examines the dispositions that have shaped archaeologies of the Near East from the discipline’s imperialist beginnings to the present, considering several key tropes of the field (from civilization to “oriental despotism” and beyond). In another sense, our concern is the materiality of Orientalism, or the work of things in enabling various discourses on the “Near” or “Middle” East. We also consider Orientalism’s antipode, nationalism, examining some of the region’s indigenous archaeo-logical paradigms.