Jump to content

Facts on the Ground

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MercyOtis (talk | contribs) at 12:28, 18 September 2007 (→‎Comments by other academics: addding new response, article). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society is a 2001 book authored by Nadia Abu El Haj. Based on her doctoral thesis for Duke University, the book is a post-colonial analysis of "the significance of archaeology to the Israeli State and society and the role it played in the formation and enactment of its colonial-national historical imagination and in the substantiation of its territorial claims".[1]

In the book, Abu El Haj uses Israeli archaeology as a case study to explore the relationship between scientific knowledge and the construction of social imaginations and political orders.[2] Focusing on the discipline of archaeology as a historical science, she outlines how archaeological practice generates facts and attempts to understand how those facts help to fashion cultural understandings, political possibilities and 'common-sense' assumptions.[2]

In her introduction, Abu El Haj explains that she "reject(s) a positivist commitment to scientific methods” and that instead, the book is “rooted in ... post-structuralism, philosophical critiques of foundationalism, Marxism and critical theory and developed in response to specific postcolonial political movements.”[3]

In Facts on the Ground, Abu El Haj describes a bitter debate between Israeli archaeologists Yigael Yadin and Yohanan Aharoni during the 1950s over how to reconcile and interpret the results of their excavations with respect to the Biblical account of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites. She writes that they "shared more than they disagreed about: the historicity of the biblical tales, the 'fact' of an Israelite nation that entered Palestine during the Bronze Age/Iron Age transition"; she describes this assumed "social collectivity" of the ancient Israelites as "a tale best understood as the modern nation's 'origin myth' ... transported into the realm of history."[4]

The book has been praised by some scholars and criticised by others.[5]

Controversy over the book intensified many years after its publication, after news emerged in 2006 that Abu El Haj was under consideration for tenure at Barnard College where she serves as an assistant professor. Barnard alumnae mounted a campaign to deny tenure to Abu El Haj that centered around the book's alleged anti-Israel bias, prompting a counter-campaign in support of the book and Abu Al Haj.[5]

Reception

Facts on the Ground was recognized by the Middle East Studies Association of North America as one of the winners of the 2002 Albert Hourani Book Award, which recognizes outstanding publishing in Middle East studies.[6]

Edward Said cited Abu El Haj's work in a lecture he delivered at the University of California in 2003, sponsored by the Burkle Center for International Relations (BCIR) entitled "Memory, Inequality and Power: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights"[1] and cited the book in his own scholarly works.

In his 2003 book Freud and the Non-European, Said gave the following assessment of el-Haj´s work:

".. I am greatly indebted to the work of a young scholar, Nadia Abu el-Haj, whose major book is entitled Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society. What she provides first of all is a history of systematic colonial archaeological exploration in Palestine, dating back to British work in the mid-nineteenth century. She then continues the story in the period before Israel is established, connecting the actual practice of archaeology with a nascent national ideology - an ideology with plans for the repossession of the land through renaming and resettling, much of it given archeological justification as a schematic extraction of Jewish identity despite the existence of Arab names and traces of other civilizations. This effort, she argues convincingly, epistemologically prepares the way for a fully fledged post-1948 sense of Israeli-Jewish identity based on assembling discrete archaeological particulars -scattered remnants of masonry, tablets, bones, tombs,....." p.47 [2]

Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik reported Campus Watch's claim that: “The book's aim is to undermine the historic connection between the Jewish people and Israel... The critique of Israeli archaeology is poorly researched and written, and ... the author's anti-Israel bias undercuts her work.”[7]

James Gelvin, however, has described the book as 'probably the most sophisticated presentation of Israel's archaeological obsession and its relation to nationalism and "colonial knowledge"'.[8]

Positive Reviews

Reaction by anthropologists to the book were often positive.

Elias Zureik wrote that, "the use of the sociology of science as a perspective in her research is both clever and refreshing. It further elevates research about Palestine to new heights, by placing it squarely in current social science literature and debates. We need more such studies."[9]

In her review of Facts on the Ground, Kimbra L. Smith[10] criticized Abu El Haj's methodology, writing that “Abu El-Haj speaks not with archaeologists who are excavating, but with archaeologists on tours given in conjunction with international archaeological congresses,"[11] but concluded: “Abu El-Haj provides an important and timely look at some of the politics of self-representation behind the Israeli government's public face... However, I reiterate that her failure to present either official Palestinian or public Palestinian/Israeli opinions and attitudes within the context of Israel's (settler) nationalist-archaeological discipline means that answers to the excellent questions she raises are never made clear.”[11]

Apen Ruiz[12] wrote in a review for H-NET that Abu El Haj examines how the issue of the nation enters the arena of scientific practices. "This is probably the primary contribution of the book in relation to other studies of nationalism and archaeology: the focus on archaeological practices as the main object of study. Nadia Abu El-Haj highlights the continuities between the colonial and the national periods in terms of archaeological reasoning, and claims that there is a 'dynamic relationship between empiricism and nationalism ... and the former gave credible form to the latter, not just in narrative, but, even more powerfully, in material cast... Facts on the Ground offers a unique and pioneering approach to examine the politics of archaeological research."[13]

Negative reviews

Archaeologist Alexander H. Joffe[14] wrote that "at the heart of [Abu El-Haj's] critique is an undisguised political agenda that regards modern and ancient Israel, and perhaps Jews as a whole, as fictions... Abu El Haj's anthropology is undone by her ... ill-informed narrative, intrusive counter-politics, and by her unwillingness to either enter or observe Israeli society... The effect is a representation of Israeli archaeology that is simply bizarre... In the end there is no reason to take her picture of Israeli archaeology seriously, since her selection bias is so glaring..." [15]

William Dever[16] "described her scholarship as 'faulty, misleading and dangerous.'[17]

Jacob Lassner[18] argued that, " Abu el-Haj misrepresents the Israeli passion for archeology. Its purpose is not to legitimize the national ethos. To the contrary: archeology appeals to Israelis because it offers a visual dimension to a past otherwise firmly anchored in oral and literary traditions. For professionals and amateurs alike, the archeology of the land of Israel is not a vehicle to authenticate the nation's existence or its distinctively Jewish character or the passionate attachment of Israelis to the land they claim as their state.[19]

Archaeologist Aren Maeir[20] wrote that Facts on the Ground is "a deceptively well-written, well researched monograph that superficially bears all the signs of a state-of-the-art contemporary social science study.." The book "is the result of faulty and ideologically motivated research."

Historian Diana Muir and Avigail Appelbaum, a graduate student in archeology, wrote that “the huge amount of evidence and scholarship demonstrating that ‘an ancient Israelite social collectivity emerged,’ becomes in her hands ‘a tale best understood as the modern nation’s origin myth ... transported into the realm of history.’”[21]

Comments by other academics

Keith Whitelam, professor of religious studies at the University of Sheffield and the author of The Invention of Ancient Israel: The Silencing of Palestinian History wrote that Facts on the Ground was a "first-rate book," that made "a very fine contribution" to the study of "how national identity is constructed and the assumptions which are then built into academic work on history and archaeology."[22]

In an academic response to Facts on the Ground, Barnard College Professor Alan Segal gave a lecture at the college "on the lack of academic accuracy in the work of assistant professor Nadia Abu El-Haj." http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/26749 He told the Columbia Spectator that “The problem is that everyone wants someone like her for the diversity of the college, and I agree, she looks great on paper. But then you read the book and you say, ‘No, this isn’t the right person,’” said Segal, who stated he does not believe that Abu El-Haj, a Fulbright Scholar and Palestinian-American, should be granted tenure. http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/26749

Controversy

A subsidiary controversy related to the book arose when Abu El Haj charged a prominent archaeologist, David Ussishkin of the University of Tel Aviv, with “bad science” on the grounds that “bulldozers are used in order to get down to earlier strata which are saturated with national significance, as quickly as possible” because of "nationalist politics guiding research agendas." Abu El Haj is said to have based her charges on the word of anonymous “archaeologists and student volunteers” who “recounted [the incident to her] after the fact.”[23] In an open letter published on the internet, Ussishkin denied the accusation.[24]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Nadia Abu El Haj, 2001, p. 2.
  2. ^ a b "Nadia Abu El Haj". Barnard College Department of Anthropology. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  3. ^ Facts on the Ground, pp. 8-9.
  4. ^ Facts on the Ground, pp. 103-104.
  5. ^ a b Karen W. Arenson (10 September 2007). "Fracas Erupts Over Book on Mideast by a Barnard Professor Seeking Tenure". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-09-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Albert Hourani Book Award Recipients, 1991-2005, Middle East Studies Association of North America.
  7. ^ Scott Jaschik. Input or Intrusion?, Inside Higher Ed, November 21, 2006.
  8. ^ Gelvin, 2005, p. 13.
  9. ^ MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies (Oct, 2002).
  10. ^ University of Notre Dame
  11. ^ a b Kimbra L. Smith. Book Reviews On-line, American Ethnologist, Volume 30 Number 2, May 2003.
  12. ^ University of Texas at Austin
  13. ^ Apen Ruiz. "Review of Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society," H-Gender-MidEast, H-Net Reviews, May, 2004.
  14. ^ State University of New York at Purchase
  15. ^ Alexander H. Joffe. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Volume 64 Number 4, October 2005. p. 297. Available online at Solomonia.
  16. ^ Retired professor of Middle Eastern archaeology at the University of Arizona.
  17. ^ Gabrielle Birkner. Barnard Alumnae Opposing Tenure for Anthropologist, The New York Sun, November 16, 2006.
  18. ^ Professor of history and religion at Northwestern University
  19. ^ Jacob Lassner. Not Grounded in Fact, Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2003.
  20. ^ Bar Ilan University
  21. ^ Diana Muir and Avigail Appelbaum. Review of Nadia Abu el-Haj's Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, History News Network, May 31, 2006.
  22. ^ Gabrielle Birkner (16 November [[[2006]]). "Barnard Alumnae Opposing Tenure for Anthropologist". New York Sun. Retrieved 2007-09-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Martin Solomon. Columbia's El Haj slanders...but what are her standards?, Campus Watch, November 27, 2006.
  24. ^ David Ussishkin. Archaeologist David Ussishkin Responds to El Haj Accusations, Solomonia, December 5, 2006.

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Facts_on_the_Ground&oldid=158711123"