Ethnographic parallels and the denial of history

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3919393
AutoresM Spriggs (0000-0002-7293-6778, Australian National University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen40
Número4
Páginas538-552
Fecha de publicación2008-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438240802453161
OpenAlexW2092268966
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas48
Referencias citadas52

An ever more Pacific-looking past of Britain and other parts of Europe is being constructed by archaeologists. Melanesian anthropology is being continually mined for supposed ethnographic parallels to elucidate the European Neolithic with its 'Big Man' societies and 'dividual' individuals. Although this Melanesian turn in European archaeology is fuelled by a detailed poring over of the minutiae of Pacific and other Third and Fourth World ethnographies, it manages to ignore totally the results of the archaeology of these ethnography-rich regions. This paper discusses the long-term commentary provided by archaeology on the short-term vision provided by the ethnography of Melanesia. It questions the appropriateness of much of the use of analogy by archaeologists in the face of population declines in much of Melanesia in the recent past by something like 90 per cent of pre-contact figures and in the face of evidence that the classic 'Big Man' style of leadership in that region is arguably as modern a creation as the Welfare State, and is a social form possible only under conditions of colonialist pacification. Keywords: Ethnographic analogyPacificarchaeological theory Acknowledgements This paper is developed from the David Clarke Memorial Lecture 2003-5. I would like to thank the David Clarke Memorial Fund Committee of Cambridge University for the invitation to present the Lecture. Professors Rob Foley and Martin Jones did much to arrange my 2005 visit, and they and their families are thanked for their hospitality. Accommodation was arranged at St John's College by Dr Tim Bayliss-Smith and the hospitality of the Master and Fellows there is also acknowledged. I have given versions of the lecture as seminars at the ANU and at the University of Aarhus

Denial · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies