TY - JOUR
T1 - Heading south, looking north
T2 - Why we need a post-colonial archaeology
AU - Shepherd, Nick
PY - 2002/12/1
Y1 - 2002/12/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Archaeological theory
KW - Colonialism
KW - Postcolonial archaeology
KW - South Africa
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036934628&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:0036934628
SN - 1380-2038
VL - 9
SP - 74
EP - 82
JO - Archaeological Dialogues
JF - Archaeological Dialogues
IS - 2
ER -