![]() ![]() This course will track some of the perceptions, uses and abuses of archaeology and, consequently, of interpretations of our cultural past. Sometimes, these attitudes colour the past in such a way that they give rise to unusual and quite unorthodox interpretations of archaeological data. Just as contemporary attitudes to race, politics, religion and gender affect the way we look at the present, so, too, do they colour the way we look at the past. ![]() Like all social sciences, archaeology is an activity which is conducted by people in the present and both its purposes and its discoveries are firmly enmeshed in contemporary attitudes and beliefs. The practice of archaeology does not take place within a social vacuum. This topic is taught by myself or Heather Burke. ![]() Rather than ignore this reality as an unwanted border transgression, archaeologists should instead confront it and explain how it has come to pass. radio, podcasts), demonstrates both this entanglement in the public eye, but also a hunger for information about the past, one that will be filled either by archaeologists or by those claiming to be archaeologists. The history of the field (colonialist exoticism as well as a specific focus on the political propaganda of ancient elites who publically entangled themselves with the supernatural), and the nature of archaeological work (rooting around in the land of the dead, working like the “detectives” that have been a trope of paranormal pop culture since the Victorian era), conspire with other forces to create this entanglement. This paper examines some the trajectory of this entanglement, why aspects of archaeology lend itself to this entanglement, and the problems archaeologists have with “policing” the borders of the discipline. There are real world consequences of this entanglement, from presentation of archaeological findings, to the public treatment of thriving current people relegated to “lost civilizations” (ex. We are routinely the heroes, villains, and victims in books, films, comic books, television shows, and video games about paranormal activities and phenomena, typically involving ancient curses, resurrected mummies, and mystical objects, and even UFOs and “cryptid” animals. ![]() The archaeologist, more than any other real-world scientific character in Western and especially American culture, is entangled in the paranormal. ![]()
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