Svenska fornminnesföreningen och Riksantikvarieämbetet

Mens dilettant er et skjellsord i dag, var dilettantisme i tidligere tider forbundet med anerkjennelse og høy sosial status. Et hovedanliggende for denne tverrfaglige antologien er å få frem dilettantenes innovative rolle og sosiale funksjon innen vitenskap, museumsvirksomhet, musikk- og teaterliv. Nettopp ved å fokusere på dilettantkulturer belyser denne boka dilettantenes praksiser. Den beskriver hvordan dilettantkulturer tok form, hvordan dilettanter organiserte seg i nettverk og hvilken innflytelse de hadde. Historiske eksempelstudier om ulike aktører på 1600-, 1700- og 1800-tallet demonstrerer at deres bidrag innenfor vitenskap og kunst var betydningsfulle og nyskapende. Antologien belyser også hvor vanskelig det er å holde fast på det dogmatiske skillet mellom dilettant og profesjonell - dilettantene var kunnskapsbærere også i en tid med økende profesjonalisering fra slutten av 1800-tallet og inn på 1900-tallet.

These twelve essays focus on the struggle to professionalize Americanist archaeology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Controlled by antiquarian and aristocratic collectors in the mid-nineteenth century, the field passed into the hands of professionals practicing a full-fledged archaeological science by the early twentieth century.
The authors deal both with mainstreams in archaeological thought, professionalization, and science and with the relationship of archaeology to American society and culture. During the developmental struggles, powerful men and institutions marginalized women, ethnic minorities, the lower and middle classes, and practitioners with the wrong pedigree, and blocked research agendas that diverged from the norm.

Vetenskapen i provinsen ägnas åt en åtminstone inom svensk historieskrivning misskänd gestalt: amatören eller forskaren som inte tjänar sitt uppehälle av sitt vetenskapliga intresse.
Idéhistorikern Jakob Christensson har närmare studerat två skånska baroner som på 1800-talet ägnade sig åt forskning och vetenskap för nöjes och nyfikenhets skull. Ett syfte med boken är att erinra om i hur hög grad den vetenskapliga kulturen burits upp av enskilda initiativ ända in i vårt sekel.
Bokens fyra essäer behandlar »amatörens historia« från 1700-talet till våra dagar, de båda baronerna Nils Christoffer och Carl Gyllenstierna och deras gärning, den botaniskt intresserade barndomsvännen Gustaf Silfverstråhle och baronernas viktigaste arbetsredskap, biblioteket på godset Krapperup.

This book highlights the growing divide in nineteenth-century intellectual circles between amateur and professional interest, and explores the institutional means whereby professional ascendancy was achieved in the broad field of studies of the past. It is concerned with how antiquarian 'gentlemen of leisure', pursuing their interests through local archaeological societies, were, by the end of the century, relegated to the sidelines of the now university-based discipline of history. At the same time it explores the theological as well as technical barriers which arrested the development of archaeology in this period. This is a notable contribution to the intellectual history of Victorian England, attending not simply to the ideas perpetrated by these communities of scholarship but to their social status, relating such social consideration to a more traditional intellectual history to create a new social history of ideas.

In line with the resurgence of interest in the history of archaeology manifested over the past decade, this volume aims to highlight state-of-the art research across several topics and areas, and to stimulate new approaches and studies in the field. With their shared historiographical commitment, the authors, leading scholars and emerging researchers, draw from a wide range of case studies to address major themes such as historical sources and methods; questions of archaeological practices and the practical aspects of knowledge production; ‘visualizing archaeology’ and the multiple roles of iconography and imagery; and ‘questions of identity’ at local, national and international levels.