# Archaeology and racism

Racism in archaeology covers the phenomenon of interpreting archaeological remains in terms of speculations about the putative racial profiles of the peoples who created the structures which excavations have brought to light.

## B

* The palaeoanthropologists of the early twentieth century were thus able to put together a view of human evolution which can be seen as an extension of the cyclic or rhythmic theory of progress advocated throughout the Victorian era. Despite its emphasis on struggle as the means by which higher types displaced their primitive antecedents, this was no product of Darwinian gradualism. Most of its supporters rejected natural selection as the motor of progressive evolution, preferring to invoke some vaguely defined creative force in the central Asian heartland. The fact that both the concept of progress through cycles and the fascination with Asia as the centre of development survived well into the twentieth century reveals the power these Victorian ages had to shape the imagination. The echoes of Max Muller's account of Aryan migrations can still be heard in the theories of human origins by archaeologists and anthropologists committed to the idea of continuous evolution. But once the faith in continuous progress was undermined by growing militarism in the age of imperial rivalries, the model of progress through conquest emerged from the wings to extend its influence over ideas on human origins. The early twentieth century merely extended the sense of racial destiny that had been growing throughout the Victorian era.
** Peter J. Bowler. The Invention of Progress: The Victorians and the Past. 1989. Oxford, Basil Blackwell. 127-8. quoted in : 1995 Shaffer, J.G. and D.A. Lichtenstein. "The Cultural Tradition and Paleoethnicity in South Asian Archaeology." In The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. G. Erdosy, (Ed.). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 126-154.

## L

* Contemporary methodologies, linguistic or archaeological, for determining the spoken language of a remote archaeological culture are virtually nonexistent. Simplified notions of the congruence between an archaeological culture, an ethnic group, and a linguistic affiliation millennia before the existence of texts is mere speculation, often with a political agenda. Archaeology has a long way to go before its methodology allows one to establish which cultural markers, pottery, architecture, burials, etc., are the most reliable for designating ethnic identity.
** Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C. (2002). Archaeology and Language. Current Anthropology, 43, 63 - 88.

## S

* Almost all anthropologists working on the Indian material have been having these archetypes ' before their mind , with the result that each skull has been taken singly and compared with one of the hypothetical racial types. If the comparison shows a closeness to a type , the skull has been regarded as belonging to that particular race . If , on the other hand , the resemblance is less exact , the skull has been relegated to a mixed group . It may very often happen that a single skull shows features that belong to two or more hypothetical types ; in such cases , the skull has been immediately considered to have been the result of mixture of these races . Sometimes , the most likely racial types ' have been considered in the skulls from a particular area , so that the conclusions could generally confirm a conventional story of invasion or migration put forward in history . Since the individual variability in physical characteristics is very great , it has not been difficult to find the type suitable in a particular situation from a collection of skeletal material.
** D.K. Sen, 'Ancient Races of India and Pakistan: A Study of Methods', Ancient India, Vols. 20-21, 1964-65, pp. 178-205; Proceedings of the Indian Science Congress -, 1964,Indian Science Congress Association . quoted in Chakrabarti, D. K., 1997. Colonial Indology: Sociopolitics of the Ancient Indian Past. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd.146