The past is `a foreign place' that contemporary societies can only reach by means of historical and archaeological inferences. When we report our findings and communicate such inferences to members of the public, it is important that we should recognize that children are a special case. Their cognitive abilities are different from those of adults: they must go through a period of apprenticeship in order to become capable of processing critically the information that is presented to them. Children are shown images of the past and told stories about it in various contexts that range from the formal and educational to the informal (for example, the genre of popular books, films and video games about antiquity). These images and stories, whether their source be a professional archaeologist, a teacher or simply an individual with a personal interest in the subject, all share a common factor: they must be fairly simple and easily available to the understanding of the age group at which they are aimed. Representations of this sort tend to ignore recent archaeological debate, continuing to purvey images of the past that are immediately recognizable from a modern perspective and may even actively reinforce that perspective. They are thus intimately connected with contemporary power strategies. This book brings together archeologists, historians, psychologists, and educators from different countries and academic traditions to address the many ways that we tell children about the (distant) past. The concern with this issue is founded on the principle that knowing the past is fundamentally important for human societies, as well as for individual development. The subject is introduced through a consideration of the cognitive and psychological processes that enable children to conceptualize a past at all. Then the many informal and formal contexts of telling are reviewed: digital and printed media, museums and cultural heritage sites, and schools and special classrooms. Benefits and disadvantages of various contexts and approaches are discussed, all seen through the eyes of professionals within these fields. Throughout this discussion, the authors expose many of unquestioned assumptions and preformed images that are routinely presented to contemporary children in narratives of the past. The contributors both examine the ways in which children come to grips with the past at the beginning of the 21st century and critically assess the many ways in which contemporary societies and an increasing number of commercial agents construct and use the past. Considering the widening gap between contemporary theoretical advances in archaeology and what is disseminated to the young, the question is raised about which past we want our children to inherit.

Book Information
ISBN 9781879621404
Author Nena Galanidou
Format Paperback
Page Count 324
Imprint International Monographs in Prehistory
Publisher International Monographs in Prehistory