The Past Is in the Present: On the History and Archives of Archaeology

Schlanger, Nathan

doi:10.1353/mod.2004.0023

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

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“…Shanks and Tilley 1992) or the ways in which simultaneous, overlapping pasts are contained within it (e.g. González-Ruibal 2006b;Lucas 2005;Olivier 2003;Schlanger 2004;Witmore 2006b;Witmore, in press). But the commentators were right to push the concept of modernism and its conceptual differences from that of modernity, as well as some of the ways in which modernist tropes such as an emphasis on empiricism and experience might be potentially useful to archaeology.…”

Section: Designs For An Archaeology In and Of The Present For The Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the present

Harrison¹

2011

Arch. Dial.

128

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Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1380203811000195How to cite this article: Rodney Harrison (2011). Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the present. AbstractThis paper explores a central paradox in the aims of the archaeology of the contemporary past as they have been articulated by its practitioners. On the one hand, its aim has been expressed as one of making the familiar 'unfamiliar', of distancing the observer from their own material world; a work of alienation. On the other hand, it has also aimed to make the past more accessible and egalitarian; to recover lost, subaltern voices and in this way to close the distance between past and present. I suggest that this paradox has stymied its development and promoted a culture of self-justification for a subfield which has already become well established within archaeology over the course of three decades. I argue that this paradox arises from archaeology's relationship with modernity and the past itself, as a result of its investment in the modernist trope of archaeology-as-excavation and the idea of a past which is buried and hidden. One way of overcoming this paradox would be to emphasize an alternative trope of archaeology-as-surface-survey and a process of assembling/reassembling, and indeed to shift away from the idea of an 'archaeology of the contemporary past' to speak instead of an archaeology 'in and of the present'. This would reorient archaeology so that it is seen primarily as a creative engagement with the present and only subsequently as a consideration of the intervention of traces of the past within it. It is only by doing this that archaeology will develop into a discipline which can successfully address itself to the present and future concerns of contemporary societies. Such a move not only has implications for archaeologies of the present and recent past, but concerns the very nature and practice of archaeology as a discipline in its broadest sense in the 21st century.

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Section: Designs For An Archaeology In and Of The Present For The Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the present

Harrison¹

2011

Arch. Dial.

128

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“…Shanks and Tilley 1992) or the ways in which simultaneous, overlapping pasts are contained within it (e.g. González-Ruibal 2006;Lucas 2005Lucas , 2010Olivier 2011;Schlanger 2004;Witmore 2006b;Högberg 2007;Holtorf 2008Holtorf , 2012Witmore 2012), but nonetheless, this oxymoronic position provides a window on an issue which concerns archaeology and its relationship to the present as a historical time period more broadly.…”

Section: Archaeology As the Study Of Surface Assemblages And A Procesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reclaiming archaeology: beyond the tropes of modernity

2013

Choice Reviews Online

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Section: Designs For An Archaeology In and Of The Present For The Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

In praise of depth

González‐Ruibal¹

2011

Arch. Dial.

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This paper explores a central paradox in the aims of the archaeology of the contemporary past as they have been articulated by its practitioners. On the one hand, its aim has been expressed as one of making the familiar 'unfamiliar', of distancing the observer from their own material world; a work of alienation. On the other hand, it has also aimed to make the past more accessible and egalitarian; to recover lost, subaltern voices and in this way to close the distance between past and present. I suggest that this paradox has stymied its development and promoted a culture of self-justification for a subfield which has already become well established within archaeology over the course of three decades. I argue that this paradox arises from archaeology's relationship with modernity and the past itself, as a result of its investment in the modernist trope of archaeology-as-excavation and the idea of a past which is buried and hidden. One way of overcoming this paradox would be to emphasize an alternative trope of archaeology-as-surface-survey and a process of assembling/reassembling, and indeed to shift away from the idea of an 'archaeology of the contemporary past' to speak instead of an archaeology 'in and of the present'. This would reorient archaeology so that it is seen primarily as a creative engagement with the present and only subsequently as a consideration of the intervention of traces of the past within it. It is only by doing this that archaeology will develop into a discipline which can successfully address itself to the present and future concerns of contemporary societies. Such a move not only has implications for archaeologies of the present and recent past, but concerns the very nature and practice of archaeology as a discipline in its broadest sense in the 21st century.

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The Past Is in the Present: On the History and Archives of Archaeology

Cited by 18 publications

References 0 publications

Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the present

Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the present

Reclaiming archaeology: beyond the tropes of modernity

In praise of depth

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