- Imaging & Imagining the Past: Visual Representation in Archaeology

Catalog description

This course will examine aspects of representation in anthropological discourse, such as gendered perspectives in images of our hominin ancestors, changing criteria behind National Geographic’s iconic photography, and the ethics of creating virtual realities of past peoples. The course focuses on the power relationships embedded in images presenting “truth” about past peoples and contemporary identities will be a focus of this course. Peoples, places, and events of the past are frequently presented to the public in visual format: drawings, paintings, photographs, maps, models, tables and graphs, film, recreations, and virtual reality. Representation is readily interpreted as “truth,” but accuracy in these images varies widely. Students will have hands-on experience in how we represent the past by translating artifacts to scientific drawing, and then on to create reconstructions.