"An Hesitating Journey Through Foreign Knowledge": Niculescu, the Ostrich, and Culture History

Abstract

In a recent article, Gh. A. Niculescu raises the question of the relation between culture-historical archaeology and the so-called "production of knowledge" on ethnic phenomena. He targets the works of Volker Bierbrauer, Sebastian Brather, and Florin Curta. At a closer examination, however, Niculescu’s paper is based on a distorted understanding of what culture history actually is, and on wrong assumptions about such fundamental concepts as ethnicity or (material culture) style. Besides flaws in this line of thinking, his paper reveals Niculescu’s dishonest citation practices, his efforts to create a straw man, and his weak credentials for assuming any critical position in terms of the "production" of archaeological literature in the culture-historical mode. Beyond rhetorical tricks and smearing tactics, Niculescu does not in fact advance any solution to the problem, and remains ambiguous, if not altogether confused about the role of "social sciences" in the archaeology of (medieval) ethnicity.

Keywords: culture history, ethnicity, archaeological theory, nationalism, style.