Post-Colonial Ruins

Archaeologies of Political Violence and Is

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2247663
AutoresChiara De Cesari (0000-0002-6754-0250, Anthropologist and Assistant Professor in European Studies and Cultural Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on heritage, memory and broader cultural politics and the ways in which these change under conditions of globalization. She is currently finishing a book titled Heritage and the Struggle for Palestine ., autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen31
Número6
Páginas22-26
Fecha de publicación2015-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8322.12214
OpenAlexW2182060141
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas32
Referencias citadas19

The carefully staged and hyper-mediated destructions at a number of world-famous archaeological sites in the area controlled by the Islamic State across Syria and Iraq have often made the headlines in recent months; and these spectacles can be counted among IS' visual markers of identity. In the mainstream media, they have largely been interpreted either as 'cultural cleansing' or as an expression of IS' inhumanity, of its barbaric iconoclasm and its criminal fight against idolatry. In this paper, I propose to interpret them as overdetermined acts or rather spectacles of destruction that must be situated within a specific political genealogy. I highlight the long-standing, deep entanglement between archaeology and (empire and) state building in the Levant

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Byzantine architecture · Colonialism · Empire · Iconoclasm · Idolatry · Islam · Mainstream · Political science · Politics · Situated · Sociology · Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture · Archaeological Research and Protection · History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Philosophy · Religious studies