"Archives, Archaeology, and the Anthropocene: Reconciling Disparate Epistemic Foundations in a Time of Precarity"

On Tuesday, March 22^nd at 6 pm in Sever 113 and on Zoom (details below), Professor Bauer will deliver a lecture, "Archives, Archaeology, and the Anthropocene: Reconciling Disparate Epistemic Foundations in a Time of Precarity". 

Talk abstract:
"In this presentation I critically engage R.G. Collingwood’s provocation that “archaeology is the methodology of history.” In distinction from typical definitions of “text-aided archaeology,” which imply the use of documentary sources to contextualize the archaeological record and aid interpretation of its content, I underscore the importance of a complementary process of using the archaeological record to enrich interpretations of epigraphical sources. Relying on inscriptional, archaeological, and geological data from ancient and medieval southern India as source material, I illustrate how the cultural significance of inscriptional records for ritual activities in the interior Deccan was related to the shifting materialities of agricultural land use that can be documented only archaeologically. When taken together, the disparate evidentiary sources demonstrate how changes in land use and inscriptional practices articulated with newly emergent social relationships and politicized conditions of precarity, both challenging and complementing previous inscription-based historiography of the region. Building on this case study, I highlight how treating documentary and archaeological sources more equally within the same hermeneutic process can augment and diversify environmental imaginaries needed to address the politics and publics of contemporary climate change."

If you would like to participate over zoom instead of in person:

https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99288478521?pwd=bExrc3FYRi9mRUdacmZWUVIwclR5QT09

Password: 736422