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The Craft of Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Michael Shanks  and
Randall H. McGuire
Michael Shanks
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Wales, Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7ED, Wales, United Kingdom
Randall H. McGuire
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, State University of New York, Binghamton, NY, 13902–6000
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Abstract

The idea of archaeology as craft challenges the separation of reasoning and execution that characterizes the field today. The Arts and Crafts Movement of the late nineteenth century established craftwork as an aesthetic of opposition. We establish craft in a Marxian critique of alienated labor, and we propose a unified practice of hand, heart, and mind for archaeology. The debates engendered by postprocessual archaeology have firmly situated archaeology in the present as a cultural and political practice. Many, however, still do not know how to work with these ideas. We argue that a resolution to this dilemma lies in thinking of archaeology as a craft. This resolution does not provide a method, or a cookbook, for the practice of archaeology, as indeed the core of our argument is that attempts at such standardization lie at the heart of the alienation of archaeology. Rather, we wish to consider archaeology as a mode of cultural productión, a unified method practiced by archaeologist, “client” public, and contemporary society.

Resumen

Resumen

La idea de la arqueología como arte desafia la separatión de razonamiento y ejecución, teoría y práctica que hoy caracteriza a la disciplina. El Movimiento de Arte y Artesanía defines del sigh XIX estableció a la artesania como una manifestatión estética de oposición. Sentamos a la artesanía dentro de una critica marxista de trabajo alienado y proponemos una práctica unifacada de mano, corazón, y mente. Los debates engendrados por la arqueología postprocesual han definido firmemente a la arqueologia del presente como una práctica cultural y politico. Sin embargo, muchos arqueólogos aúm no saben cómo implementar estas ideas. Argüimos que una solutión a este dilema consiste en pensar en la arqueología como artesanía. Esta resolutión no provee un método o un libro de recetas para la próctica de la arqueología, puesto que el niicleo de núestro argumento es que la intentión de regularizar la arqueología constituye precisamente la causa de alienatión de la disciplina. Por el contrario, deseamos considerar a la arqueologia como un modo de productión cultural, una práctica unificada del pasado, arqueólogo, público cliente, y sociedad contemporánea.

Type
Forum
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 75 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1996

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