Discussing archaeology and the nation in six European countries : a discourse analysis

Abstract

We studied the use of archaeological scholarly knowledge for supporting and promoting national identity by global non-professional communities. The data collection consisted of asynchronous online text-based Facebook focus group discussions in Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Lithuania, and Spain. After, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of posts and comments we collected. Our research’s main result is the identification of framing schemas that communicatively connect the personal perception and interpretation of scholarly archaeological knowledge with existing community knowledge on national identity. We identified, analysed, and discussed ten different framing schemas in this article: Uniqueness, Succession, Language, Christianity, Western civilization, Nature, Stranger civilizations, Double identities, National heroes, and Future expectations. The different framing schemas are interconnected, but application of the framing schemas varies in different countries.