Islamization and Archaeology: Religion, Culture and New Materialism

This fresh approach to the study of Islamisation proposes an innovative conceptual framework that treats the subject as a particular case of cultural change, making Islamisation amenable to archaeological and historical analyses of changes in material conditions of life. The aim of the volume is to provide an explanation of what Islam and Islamisation mean in a particular social context.

Considering three key aspects - identities, communities and technologies - Jose C. Carvajal Lopez studies the archaeology of change in the material conditions of life associated with Islamisation. It is evident that this process involves changes in the conception of Muslim and non-Muslim identities in relation to the societies touched by Islam in different periods. Beyond that, the study of communities contemplates changes in political relations between the different social groups that Islamisation brought about, and the study of technologies allows for an analysis of the changes in social practices and the apparatus of techniques that enable and power the dynamics of cultural transformations.

This innovative take on Islamisation is not exclusively interested in the spread of the religion or of the polity, and therefore it overcomes the theoretical limits imposed by the concepts of religious conversion and ideological imposition. This book will appeal to scholars interested in associating cultural and religious change and, in particular, those working on Islam, whether within or outside archaeology.