Abstract
Along the roads and pathways through the highlands of Asia, things accumulate and tell stories about the dreams and ambitions of yesterday’s tomorrows. The vagaries of trade, development and migration leave layers of material sediments behind. Tapping into these material sediments with a method we call an archaeology of the contemporary, we created an exhibition around this highland flotsam, showing simple, everyday items with cosmopolitan biographies (see www.highlandasia.net/projects/highlandflotsam.html). In this talk, I present the exhibition project and offer a reflection on the possibilities of an archaeology of the contemporary for ethnographic research along the corridors and byways of today’s fantastic silk roads, old and new.
