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Bangladesh: building national identity through archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

M.L. Smith
M.L. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 3H01 Posvar Hall, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260, USA
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Extract

For a developing nation, Bangladesh has a surprisingly large number of active archaeological excavations and museums. Resources have been invested not only in the capital city of Dhaka, but also in regional centres where there are archaeological museums and sites open for public visitation. These venues, identified by politicians and philosophers as the repositories for symbols of heritage and national identity, provide another significant benefit in the form of open public space for recreation and leisure. The use of these spaces by growing numbers of urban-dwelling Bangladeshis illustrates the often under-appreciated phenomenon of domestic tourism as a component of archaeological heritage management in developing nations.

Keywords

BangladeshAsiaidentityWorld HeritageBuddhism
Type
Special section
Information
Antiquity , Volume 74 , Issue 285 , September 2000 , pp. 701 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

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