their position, emphasizing their own uniqueness as religious groups and, in
this way, their right to act if needed as partners at a negotiating table. Other
groups based on other types of identities, such as gender and race, would only
engage in archaeology much later in time, mainly in the last third of the
twentieth century, well beyond the chronological limits of this book, with
groups such as the Goddess movement and Afro-Americans among others.
During the nineteenth century, therefore, nationalism remained the great
mover behind the development of professional archaeology, although other
types of identities like religion also served as a catalyst for an interest in the
archaeological past.
Russian Empire and French North Africa 277