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Construction of national identity and origins in East Asia: a comparative perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Fumiko Ikawa-Smith
Fumiko Ikawa-Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2T7 [email protected]
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Extract

Many authors have remarked that archaeology in East Asia is part of the discipline of history (Chang 1981: 148; Ikawa-Smith 1975: 15; Nelson 1995: 218; Olsen 1987: 282–3; Von Falkenhausen 1993). Furthermore, it is more ‘locally focussed’ (Barnes 1993: 40), with most of the practising archaeologists investigating archaeological remains within their own national boundaries. To paraphrase the famous statement by North American archaeologists, ‘American archaeology is anthropology or it is nothing’ (Willey & Phillips 1957: 2), into ‘East Asian archaeology is national history or it is nothing’ would be an overstatement, but it is not too far from the reality. The major goal of archaeology in East Asia is to enhance understanding of a nation's past, by increasing its temporal depth. In other words, construction of national identity is the prime business of archaeology in East Asia.

Keywords

ChinaKoreaJapanViet Namnational identityethnic minoritiescultural heritage management
Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 73 , Issue 281 , September 1999 , pp. 626 - 629
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1999

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