Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:34:35.352Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Bangladesh: building national identity through archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

M.L. Smith
M.L. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 3H01 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For a developing nation, Bangladesh has a surprisingly large number of active archaeological excavations and museums. Resources have been invested not only in the capital city of Dhaka, but also in regional centres where there are archaeological museums and sites open for public visitation. These venues, identified by politicians and philosophers as the repositories for symbols of heritage and national identity, provide another significant benefit in the form of open public space for recreation and leisure. The use of these spaces by growing numbers of urban-dwelling Bangladeshis illustrates the often under-appreciated phenomenon of domestic tourism as a component of archaeological heritage management in developing nations.

Keywords

BangladeshAsiaidentityWorld HeritageBuddhism
Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 285 , September 2000 , pp. 701 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmad, A. 1984. Agricultural stagnation under population pressure: the case of Bangladesh. New Delhi: Vikras Publishing.Google Scholar
Ahmed, N. (ed.). 1979. Bangladesh Archaeology 1.Google Scholar
Ahmed, N. & Ali, M. N.d. Lalhagh Fort. Dhaka: Department of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Ali, M. & Bhattacharjee, S.B.. 1986. Archaeological survey report Bogra district. Dhaka: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1998. Mymonsingh museum lying uncared for, relics being damaged. The Bangladesh Observer 22 January: 11.Google Scholar
Baxter, C. 1984. Bangladesh: a new nation in an old setting. Boulder (CO): Westview.Google Scholar
Brown, S.F. & Koran, J.J., Jr. 1998. Learning from ruins: a visitor study at Uxmal, Curator 41: 121–31.Google Scholar
Chakrabarti, D.K. 1992. Ancient Bangladesh: a study of the archaeological sources. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chakravarty, S.C. 1974. Nationalism and components of social change in Bangladesh, in A nation is born, Proceedings of the International Seminar on Bangladesh, Calcutta: 172–84. Calcutta: Calcutta University Institute for Indo-Bangladeshi Studies.Google Scholar
Conincham, R. & Lewer, N.. 1999. Paradise lost: the bombing of the Temple of the Tooth — a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sri Lanka, Antiquity 73: 857–66.Google Scholar
Coningham, R. & Schmidt, A.. 1997. Monuments under threat in Bangladesh, Minerva 8: 39–43.Google Scholar
Costin, C.L. 1993. Legal and policy issues in the protection of cultural heritage in South Asia and the Pacific, in MacLean, M.G.H. (ed.), Cultural heritage in Asia and the Pacific: 27–62. Malibu (CA): The Getty Conservation Institute.Google Scholar
Crick, M. 1994. Resplendent sites, discordant voices: Sri Lankans and international tourism. Chur (Switzerland): Harwood.Google Scholar
Falk, J.H., Moussouri, T. & Coulson, D.. 1998. The effect of visitors’ agendas on museum learning, Curator 41: 107–20.Google Scholar
Gill, S. 1999. Mahasthangarh: a riverine port in ancient Bengal, in Ray, H.P. (ed.), Archaeology of seafaring: 154–72. New Delhi: Indian Council for Historical Research.Google Scholar
Goudie, A. & Viles, H.. 1997. Salt weathering hazards. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Hasan, S.R. 1992. Problems and prospect of Bangladesh tourism iudustry. Dhaka: Bureau of Business Research, University of Dhaka.Google Scholar
Khan, F.A. 1972. Development of archaeology in Bangladesh, Journal of the Varendra Research Museum 1: 8–22.Google Scholar
Kohl, P.L. 1998. Nationalism and archaeology: on the constructions of nations and the reconstructions of the remote past, Annual Review of Anthropology 27: 223–46.Google Scholar
Madan, T.N. 1998. Coping with ethnicity in South Asia: Bangladesh, Punjab and Kashmir compared, Ethnic and Racial Studies 21: 969–89.Google Scholar
Mahmud, F. & Rahman, H.. 1987. The museums in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Bangla Academy.Google Scholar
Majumdar, R. 1979. Our theatre today, Shilpakala: annual journal of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy 2: 100–107.Google Scholar
Mandal, D. 1993. Ayodhya: archaeology after demolition. New Delhi: Orient Longman.Google Scholar
Mbunwe-Samba, P., Niba, M.L. & Akenji, N.I.. 1994. Archaeology in the schools and museums of Cameroon, in Stone, P.G. & Molyneaux, B.L. (ed.), The presented past: Heritage, museums and education: 326–37. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Molyneaux, B.L. 1994. Introduction: the represented past, in Stone, P.G. & Molyneaux, B.L. (ed.), The presented past: Heritage, museums and education: 1–13. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Osmany, S.H. 1992. Bangladesh nationalism: history of dialectics and dimensions. Dhaka: University Press.Google Scholar
Peleggi, M. 1996. National heritage and global tourism in Thailand, Annals of Tourism Research 23: 432–48.Google Scholar
Rao, N. 1994. Interpreting silences: symbol and history in the case of Ram Janmabhoomi/Babri Masjid, in Bond, G.C. & Gilliam, A. (ed.), Social construction of the past: 154–64. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Salles, J.-F. 1995. Les fouilles de Mahasthangarh (Bangladesh), Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres: 531–60. Paris: Diffusion de Boccard.Google Scholar
Silva, R. 1989. The cultural triangle of Sri Lanka, in Cleere, H. (ed.). Archaeological heritage management in the modern world: 221–6. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Singh, Y.B. 1980–81. Archaeology and the problem of regional identity, Puratattva 12: 150–51.Google Scholar
Smith, R.A. 1998. Sustainable tourism in Vietnam, Annals of Tourism Research 25: 765–7.Google Scholar
Smith, M.L. In press. Archaeology, museums and the creation of national identity in the Indian subc ontinent, in The entangled past: integrating history and archaeology. Calgary: University of Calgary, Department of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Tofayell, Z.A. 1972. Bangladesh: antiquities and museums. Dhaka: Atikullah.Google Scholar