IngentaConnect Rhythm, Tempo, and Historical Time: Experiencing Temporality in t...

Author: Herzfeld, Michael¹

Source: Public Archaeology, Volume 8, Numbers 2-3, August 2009 , pp. 108-123(16)

Abstract:

Reversing common assumptions about the unidirectional flow of theoretical insight from social anthropology to archaeology, the author takes the evidential constraints on the latter as a source of methodological rigour in establishing the meanings of antiquities and their modern imitations in the lives of residents of historic sites. In particular, he focuses on varieties of temporalities that, while they may all be available to all societies, are filtered through differing cultural assumptions and unequal access to resources. Drawing on earlier work he has done on artisanal production and historic conservation in Greece, Italy, and Thailand, he suggests that official ideologies may constrain the public presentation of collective identities that nevertheless draw on other, concealed symbolic resources for their sense of distinctiveness within national frameworks. He notes that the now globally dominant neoliberal ideology, with its commoditization of history, both poses a massive obstruction to the choices available to the politically weak and compromises the forms of agency that its technologies have made available to these populations.

Keywords: TEMPORALITY; ARTEFACTS; IMITATION; OFFICIAL IDEOLOGIES; CONSERVATION; NEOLIBERALISM

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/175355309X457178

Affiliations: 1: Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA;, Email: herzfeld@wjh.harvard.edu

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Rhythm, Tempo, and Historical Time: Experiencing Temporality in the Neoliberal Age