Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society

Archaeology in Israel is truly a national obsession, a practice through which national identity--and national rights--have long been asserted. But how and why did archaeology emerge as such a pervasive force there? How can the practices of archaeology help answer those questions? In this stirring book, Nadia Abu El-Haj addresses these questions and specifies for the first time the relationship between national ideology, colonial settlement, and the production of historical knowledge. She analyzes particular instances of history, artifacts, and landscapes in the making to show how archaeology helped not only to legitimize cultural and political visions but, far more powerfully, to reshape them. Moreover, she places Israeli archaeology in the context of the broader discipline to determine what unites the field across its disparate local traditions and locations.

Boldly uncovering an Israel in which science and politics are mutually constituted, this book shows the ongoing role that archaeology plays in defining the past, present, and future of Palestine and Israel.

Author: Nadia Abu El-Haj
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 02/01/2002
Pages: 363
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.06h x 5.98w x 0.81d
ISBN13: 9780226001951
ISBN10: 0226001954
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Archaeology
- History | Ancient | General

About the Author
Nadia Abu El-Haj is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.