Archeology and nationalism: subject areas and main directions of research

This paper attempts to identify and classify the major areas of research, developing in the relationship problems of archeology and nationalism. Based on the fact that the main objects of study, updated as part of the problem, are the scientific knowledge, state, national policies and national movements, there are three key subject areas. The first subject area includes the study of the logic of the national discourse in the archaeological knowledge - scientific concepts and approaches that form the cultural capital of nationalism. Methodological bases of formation of national discourse in archeology are associated with the spread of the ideas of Romanticism, establishment of the cultural-historical school, development of ethnogenetic research. The same problem field updates one more line -the impact of pseudo-archaeological literature on the formation of national consciousness, which in turn raises questions about the relation of scientific archeology and amateur approach. The second subject area considers the dependence of historical interpretations of archaeological materials on the political situation, the use of archeology by the state for national mobilization. It is noted that in addition to the analysis of concrete situations of historiography related to the formation and development of nationalism, the researchers focused on the mechanisms of the state control over archeology, and through it over the mass consciousness. There are several options for the state and archeology interaction associated with the formation of national identity. The third subject are focuses on the role of archeology in the formation of social memory as a specific perception of the past, bringing cumulative political entity. In the national consciousness views of the past are critical, it is social memory, presented in the form of myths. Therefore, the past, and archeology in particular, play not only a mobilizing, but also a stabilizing role for the community. The past is an important element of a meaningful national identity, which provides the national community with a possibility to operate. There are specific properties of archaeological topos of the national memory, which allow to ideologically keep the subject in the gravity field of the political community with a particular force. Theoretical and methodological issues actualised in the problem of archeology and nationalism relations are formulated in the context of the key problems of historical knowledge - the ratio of the subject and object of research. The attempt to resolve them purely in terms of the logic of development of archeology, or only on the basis of the hard determinism of archeology by policy would mean a significant simplification of the problem. The interaction of archeology, state and national process in the modern world is regular. Additional complexity in its study is the need to address the current socio-economic and political situation. All this forms a new, unexplored research area, the study of which requires comprehensive preparation.

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