Article contents
Heading south, looking north
Why we need a post-colonial archaeology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Abstract
Archaeology has to re-think the terms of its practice, because current debate tends to intervene at the level of theory, which leaves the discipline ungrounded in a theory of practice or a conception of the historical coming into being of archaeology as a discipline. From a South African perspective, its grand narrative is primarily concerned with the development of social theory in the West but it does not provide - it cannot provide – an account of the formation of the discipline as a social and signifying practice situated in a broader social and political context. Central to this re-thinking, I argue, are questions of social value, and the role played by archaeology in projects of restitution, social justice, memory and identity.
- Type
- Essay Competition
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s) 2002
References
- 13
- Cited by