Printer-friendly versionLothar von Falkenhausen to Discuss Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in Ancient China
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Image courtesy of Lothar von Falkenhausen |
Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor in the Department of the History of Art at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will present“The First Emperor’s Home Base: Archaeological Perspectives on Ethnicity in Ancient China” on Friday, October 22, at 4:30 p.m. in the West Building Lecture Hall on the Institute campus.
In this lecture, Falkenhausen will explore some of the issues and pitfalls at stake when archaeologists in China correlate archaeological finds with ancient ethnic groups and thereby attempt to define the latter through material traits. Using as an example the northwestern regional polity of Qin, the home base of the First Emperor of China, he will examine how Qin differed from its neighbors in continental East Asia, how one might interpret the observable differences, and what “Chineseness” signifies in a Qin context.
The lecture, supported by the Dr. S. T. Lee Fund for Historical Studies, is part of a workshop on “DNA, History and Archaeology” organized by Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor in East Asian Studies in the School of Historical Studies. “DNA, History and Archaeology” is made possible with support from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.
Falkenhausen’s main field of research is the archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University in 1988 and has taught at UCLA since 1993; he was appointed Professor in 1997. Falkenhausen is concurrently serving as Associate Director of the University’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, which this year inaugurated an international archaeological field school in Xi’an, China.
His book Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2006) received the 2009 Society of American Archaeology Book Award.
The lecture is free and open to the public but reservations are requested. To reserve, please call (609) 951-4595 or email EventRSVP@ias.edu. For more information, visit the Public Events page on the Institute website, www.ias.edu.
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