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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.74651 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Fawcett, Clare P. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Anthropology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001224786, proquestno: AAINN67746, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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