Anjana's Proposal

Anjana Joshi * April 6, 2008 * ARCH1600

With my final paper, I would like to focus and expand upon Susan Pollock‘s ideas of archaeology as a tool for legitimizing war. Specifically, I am interested in her discussion of the US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001 after the Taliban’s destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas. I find this example to be particularly demonstrative of the impact of archaeology on public opinion and its importance in securing Western identity, because the Bamiyan Buddhas legitimated US presence in Afghanistan though had been largely unknown in the Western world until after their destruction. To examine these issues, I would like to use two types of sources: theoretical sources to examine the issues of heritage and identity as well as media sources from the time of the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas and the following US-led war in Afghanistan.

Bibliography:

1. Pollock, Susan; 2005. “Archaeology goes to war at the newsstand,” in Archaeologies of the Middle East: critical perspectives. S Pollock and R Bernbeck (eds.). Malden MA: Blackwell, 78-96. (E-book)

2. Yahya, Adel H; 2005. “Archaeology and Nationalism in the Holy Land,” in Archaeologies of the Middle East: critical perspectives. S Pollock and R Bernbeck (eds.). Malden MA: Blackwell, 66-77. (E-book)

3. Meskell, Lynn; 2005. “Sites of violence: terrorism, tourism and heritage in the archaeological present,” in Embedding ethics. Lynn Meskell and Peter Pels (eds.). Oxford: Berg, 123-146.

4. Bahrani, Zainab; 1998. “Conjuring Mesopotamia: imaginative geography and a world past,” in Archaeology under fire: Nationalism, politics and heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. L. Meskell (ed.), Routledge: London and New York, 159-174.

5. Various New York Times & Other Newspaper Articles or Journals

Posted at Apr 10/2008 11:19PM:
Omur: Dear Anjana

Just had a chance to think through your paper proposal. The question of Afghanistan and Bamiyan Buddhas in relationship to contemporary identities, local and global, and issues of cultural heritage makes it very well defined and a fascinating one indeed.

I would try read a few other articles in the Archaeology under fire volume, the ones other than Bahrani's as well.

Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heritage by Laurajane Smith is also worthwhile to take a look. Those will help you with the theory. http://books.google.com/books?id=p_A4X5qEHXIC&pg

The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in a Global Context By Susan Kane http://josiah.brown.edu/record=b3495279

This article has a great discussion of Afghanistan and Bamiyan Buddhas:

Negative Heritage and Past Mastering in Archaeology Lynn Meskell Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 75, No. 3 (Summer, 2002), pp. 557-574 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3318204

Dismembering/disremembering the Buddhas: Renderings on the Internet during the Afghan purge of the past Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 1, 75-98 (2003) http://jsa.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/3/1/75

I hope these help Best wishes Omur