John Carman

Patricia Carman

By investigating the sites of historical battlefields, this book shows that an insight can be developed into the minds of those who fought, and into some of our own expectations about war. It reveals differences in landscape type between battlefields from the tenth to nineteenth century in Britain, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal.

Investigating Landscapes of Battle

Bloody Meadows

Robin Skeates

Carol McDavid

The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology seeks to reappraise the place of archaeology in the contemporary world by providing a series of essays that critically engage with both old and current debates in the field of public archaeology. Divided into four distinct sections and drawing across disciplines in this dynamic field, the volume aims to evaluate the range of research strategies and methods used in archaeological heritage and museum studies, identify and contribute to key contemporary debates, critically explore the history of archaeological resource management, and question the fundamental principles and practices through which the archaeological past is understood and used today.

The Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology

Marie Louise Stig Sørensen

This is the first volume specifically dedicated to the consolidation and clarification of Heritage Studies as a distinct field with its own means of investigation. It presents the range of methods that can be used and illustrates their application through case studies from different parts of the world, including the UK and USA. The challenge that the collection makes explicit is that Heritage Studies must develop a stronger recognition of the scope and nature of its data and a concise yet explorative understanding of its analytical methods. The methods considered fall within three broad categories: textual/discourse analysis, methods for investigating people’s attitudes and behaviour; and methods for exploring the material qualities of heritage. The methods discussed and illustrated range from techniques such as text analysis, interviews, participant observation, to semiotic analysis of heritage sites and the use of GIS. Each paper discusses the ways in which methods used in social analysis generally are explored and adapted to the specific demands that arise when applied to the investigation of heritage in its many forms. Heritage Studies is a seminal volume that will help to define the field. The global perspective and the shared focus upon the development of reflexive methodologies ensure that the volume explores these central issues in a manner that is simultaneously case-specific and of general relevance.

Methods and Approaches

Heritage Studies

Divided into four distinct sections and drawing across various disciplines, this volume seeks to reappraise the place of archaeology in the contemporary world by providing a series of essays that critically engage with both old and current debates in the field of public archaeology.

Vasudha Narayanan

In this multifaceted work, John Carman and Vasudha Narayanan clarify historical developments in South Asian religion and make important contributions to the methodology of textual interpretation and the comparative study of world religions.

Pillan's Interpretation of the Tiruvaymoli

The Tamil Veda

Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer John Carman

This bibliography is the culmination of four years' work by a team of noted scholars; its annotated entries are organised by religious tradition and cover each tradition's central concepts, offering a judicious selection of primary and secondary works as well as recommendations of cross-cultural topics to be explored. Specialists in the history and literature of religions and comparative religion will find this bibliography a valuable research tool.

A Bibliographic Guide to the Comparative Study of Ethics

Unlike most textbooks on heritage which discuss the creation of heritage as a cultural phenomenon or offer practical guides to heritage practices, Archaeology and Heritage takes a fresh approach by providing an introduction to themes in the field of heritage as it relates to the material legacy of our past. A survey of current approaches to theorizing archaeological practice presents some ideas about how we understand and relate to the remains, sites, structures and buildings that have come to our present from the past.The book is divided into seven chapters, each preceded by a short interlude which considers the types of literature and ways of talking about heritage which characterize that approach. For those not already acquainted with recent archaeological theory, the book provides a brief introduction to current trends. Each chapter is in turn divided into key points indicated by sub-headings, and these key points are reiterated at the end of each chapter and are followed by a list of suggested readings.

An Introduction

Archaeology and Heritage

Ian Hodder

Gavin Lucas

Michael Shanks

Jonathan Last

Alexandra Alexandri

Victor Buchli

Routledge

Covers the ways in which material culture is understood and preserved in museums and how the nature of history is itself in flux.

Finding Meaning in the Past

Interpreting Archaeology

This volume provides a forum for debate between varied approaches to the past. The authors, drawn from Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia, represent many different strands of archaeology. They address the philosophical issues involved in interpretation and a desire among archaeologists to come to terms with their own subjective approaches to the material they study, a recognition of how past researchers have also imposed their own value systems on the evidence which they presented.

John Carman

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