Lanterna Rally

Author: Fawcett, Clare

Publisher: National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13:

"This thesis uses a study of the relationship between Japanese archaeology and its social, political and economic context to explore the issue of relativism versus positivism in archaeological interpretation. This is done through (1) a historical analysis of the growth of Japanese archaeological work and buried cultural properties administration prior to and after 1945, (2) a description of how Japanese political and business elites have used archaeological sites and information from the Asuka area to create a symbol of the Japanese people's national identity and (3) a presentation of opinions of archaeologists working in the buried cultural properties administrative system, during the mid-1980s, about the role of archaeology in contemporary Japan. This analysis of the history of Japanese archaeology shows that archaeological data have been used to rewrite a new Japanese history from 1945, but that archaeologists, while retaining control of the organization of archaeological research, may not control how archaeological information is used by the society as a whole. The study concludes that neither an extreme positivist nor an extreme relativist position is valid when discussing the relationship between archaeology and its social context." --