Archaeology of Early Buddhism [Hardcover]

The publication of Archaeology of Early Buddhism will serve a very broad audience, including specialists of Buddhist monastic history and students of the material expression of ritual and religion in a complex cultural setting. Fogelin has effectively integrated modern theory on ritual, practice, and landscape with archaeological data from a key south Indian Buddhist monasteryThotlakondato create a stimulating explanation of its place within a complex political, economic, and social setting. It is certain to become a classic in the field.This is an important little book written with clarity and without jargon. It will, like no other, allow the historian and textual scholar to see what can and cannot be learned from the archeological study of a seemingly ordinary Buddhist monastery in early India. Fogelin's definition of the practice of phenomenology, incidentally, deserves to become a classic.In this important work, Lars Fogelin brings rigorous archaeological research methodologies to bear on questions of religion, arguing that material evidence of religious practice is no more intractable than the many other culturally laden practices that archaeologists examine. Fogelin puts his perspective to the test in a nuanced exploration of ritual space, material culture, and sacred landscapes in and around an early historic Buddhist monastery in Southeast India. In so doing, he provides a valuable model for future scholars of religion to follow and makes important contributions to scholarship on early Buddhism and South Asian archaeology and to the larger audience of archaeologists and anthropologists interested in the study of ritual and religion.I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Fogelin's writing is very clear, even when approaching the sticky bits of archaeological theory like (shudder) Marxism and phenomenology. . . . the Archaeology of Early Buddhism is an excellent introduction both the the archaeology of Buddhism and practice theory as it is exercised in archaeology.lS?