Regions of the Imagination: Archaeologists, Local People, and the Archaeological Record in Fieldwork, Greece

Abstract

This paper takes a close look at the relationship of an archaeological team engaged on a regional survey for the Greek Archaeological Service to the local population, and at the practices and scholastic assumptions of the archaeologists. Regional survey, with its emphasis on populations and resources is found to resemble the work of census takers and bureaucrats (and not surprisingly many locals see the archaeologists as representatives of the state). Prehistoric farmers are treated as 'sensible' and apolitical, and archaeology is seen to adopt refined tactics that domesticate the unfamiliar and banish the difficult and contradictory from concern. The intellectual safety of demographic approaches becomes clearer when the multiplicity of relations between the team and the locals is considered - precisely the variety missing from the texts written about the past - and when the archaeologists attempt to banish local life and politics from their narratives.