Archaeologies of Colonialism - by Michael Dietler (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek, and Roman colonists during the first millennium BC. Analyzing archaeological data and ancient texts, Michael Dietler explores these colonial encounters over six centuries, focusing on material culture, urban landscapes, economic practices, and forms of violence. He shows how selective consumption linked native societies and colonists and created transformative relationships for each. Archaeologies of Colonialism also examines the role these ancient encounters played in the formation of modern European identity, colonial ideology, and practices, enumerating the problems for archaeologists attempting to re-examine these past societies.

From the Back Cover

"Archaeologies of Colonialism contributes to a new understanding of a very large body of material. Its publication will be welcomed by historians and archaeologists who study ancient Greek and Roman colonialism, Mediterranean trade, and Iron Age Europe."--Peter S. Wells, author of The Battle that Stopped Rome

"Dietler examines colonial encounters and entanglements through a variety of lenses (consumption, violence, space), elegantly deploying the rich archaeology and history of the Western Mediterranean, an antiquity that shaped our very notions of the colonial experience. This is a book as complex and nuanced as the process it explores."--Susan E. Alcock, Brown University

Review Quotes

"An excellent account."-- "European Jrnl Of Archaeology" (1/3/2013 12:00:00 AM)

"An important and valuable addition to current studies in postcolonial theory and the colonial phenomenon in the ancient Mediterranean."-- "Archaeological Review" (12/2/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Dazzling. . . . Dietler offers in this utterly captivating study . . . an account of a colonial entanglement like nothing you have ever read."--Daniel Lord Smail, Harvard University "H-France Review Of Books" (7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Dietler has produced an outstanding work of scholarship that is sophisticated, intelligent, and insightful, and that deserves the close attention of scholars."-- "Journal Of Interdisciplinary History" (11/28/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Dietler's book is full of interesting . . . insights woven from a particular anthropologically driven perspective."--http: //www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/02/how-istanbul-became-one-europes-safest-city/1103/#.TyrGDhZDBSY.mailto "American Journal Of Archaeology" (1/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

"Recommended."-- "Choice" (6/10/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Substantial and highly informative. . . . A detailed study."--Richard Hingley, Durham University "Britannia Magazine" (2/7/2013 12:00:00 AM)

About the Author

Michael Dietler is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and the author of Consumption and Colonial Encounters in the Rhone Basin of France.