Problematizing The Normalized, Unsettling The Institutionalized: Thinking About The Reciprocity of Archaeology and History in Bengal

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in South Asia" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The disciplinary traditions of the practice of archaeology and history, formed in colonial Bengal, have developed specific normalcies. Despite the initial divergent trajectories and institutions, both disciplines have inherited and essentialized an entangled relationship, especially about the periods which are categorized as ‘historical’. Textual and epigraphic sources have been the dominant sources for constructing the periodizing categories, narratives and interpretations. The Bengal as a region in the eastern margin of the Indian subcontinent have a normalized tradition of using archaeological data, mostly monument-centric and city-centric, and overtly North Indian standards to fit nationalist discourses. In this paper, I try to identify the developments of institutionalized assumptions in the reciprocity. I raise questions about the marginalization and reification of archaeology in historical narratives without trivializing the history writing or bias on sources.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Historical Archaeology in South Asia   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology