Rhythm, Tempo, and Historical Time: Experiencing Temporality in the Neoliberal Age

Abstract

Reversing common assumptions about the unidirectional flow of theoretical insight from social anthropology to archaeology, the author takes the evidential constraints on the latter as a source of methodological rigour in establishing the meanings of antiquities and their modern imitations in the lives of residents of historic sites. In particular, he focuses on varieties of temporalities that, while they may all be available to all societies, are filtered through differing cultural assumptions and unequal access to resources. Drawing on earlier work he has done on artisanal production and historic conservation in Greece, Italy, and Thailand, he suggests that official ideologies may constrain..