Archaeology and Colonialism

Archaeology and Colonialism by Chris Gosden

Archaeology is the only discipline that allows us to take a long-term view across all forms of colonialism, from the Uruk cities of early Mesopotamia, through the empires of the Romans and the Aztecs, to the colonies of modern European states. In this innovative study, Chris Gosden presents a comparative survey of 5000 years of colonialism. Defining colonialism as, crucially, a relationship with material culture, destabilising of older values, changing both incomers and natives, Gosden attempts to understand the history of power, how it is exercised through material culture and how this understanding can generate new notions of interaction and encounter. By defining colonialism through its relationship with material culture, Gosden argues that modern colonialism, giving rise to settler societies, is historically unusual. Synthesising theoretical approaches and evidence from a broad span of colonial regions, this book provides an important new field of enquiry connecting historic and prehistoric archaeology.

'Archaeology and Colonialism is a highly readable reassessment of colonialism … Archaeology and Colonialism is an enjoyable and useful bookThrough its concentration on power relations manifest in material culture, it offers a new and stimulating way to approach cultural contact.' Stephanie Wynne-Jones, University of Cambridge
' … a brave and interesting attempt at a new synthesis …' Ancient West & East

Chris Gosden is Lecturer and Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521787956
ISBN 10	0521787955
Title	Archaeology and Colonialism
Author	Chris Gosden
Series	Topics In Contemporary Archaeology
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	2004-04-15
Number of pages	204
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.