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The Future of Nuclear Waste: What Art and Archaeology Can Tell Us about Securing the World's Most Hazardous Material by Rosemary Joyce (Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley) at Abbey's Bookshop,
The Future of Nuclear Waste: What Art and Archaeology Can Tell Us about Securing the World's Most Hazardous...
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Rosemary Joyce (Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley)

The Future of Nuclear Waste

What Art and Archaeology Can Tell Us about Securing the World's Most Hazardous Material

Rosemary Joyce (Professor of Anthropology, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley)

$85.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
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English
Oxford University Press Inc
09 July 2020
Art & design styles: Postmodernism; Archaeology; Environmental archaeology; History of science; Nuclear issues
How can nations ensure that buried nuclear waste goes undisturbed for thousands of years? The United States government tried to solve this problem with the help of experts they identified in communication, materials science, and futurism. From the perspective of a contemporary archaeologist, The Future of Nuclear Waste looks at what these experts suggested, and what the government endorsed: designs for a modern monument, an artificial ruin, a purpose-built archaeological site that would escape future exploration. One design, selected for development, argued that because specific archaeological sites and objects (among them Stonehenge, Serpent Mound, the Rosetta Stone, and rock art) made long ago have endured and are seen as significant today, contemporary engineers could build monuments that would be equally effective in conveying messages that last even longer. An alternative proposal, which government planners set aside, was rooted in the idea that universal archetypes of design arouse similar human emotions in all times and places. Both proposals used common sense, assuming that human reactions and understandings are relatively predictable.

Employing an anthropology of common sense, Rosemary Joyce explores why people chosen for their expertise relied on generalizations contradicted by the actual history of preservation and interpretation of archaeological sites and the closest analogues to archetype-based designs, which are the large scale installations produced in the Land Art movement. The book reveals the underlying imagination shared by the experts, government planners, and artists, in which the American West is an empty space available for projects like these. It counters this with the dissenting voices of indigenous scholars and activists who document the presence on these nuclear landscapes of Native American people. The result is an eye-opening and unique demonstration of how a deep understanding of the remote past informs critical debates about the present.
By:  
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 160mm,  Width: 239mm,  Spine: 25mm
Weight:   567g
ISBN:   9780190888138
ISBN 10:   019088813X
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Rosemary Joyce is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her previous publications include Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives: Sex, Gender, and Archaeology and, as editor with Barry Cunliffe and Chris Gosden, The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology.

Reviews for The Future of Nuclear Waste: What Art and Archaeology Can Tell Us about Securing the World's Most Hazardous Material

...offers us important insights... * Cornelius Holtorf, Technology and Culture *


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