Learning from the past about the present and for the future

Summary

This paper argues that we would massively increase the value of our archaeological understanding of the past

for the present if we cast it differently. Rather than use a reductionist, 'ex-post' approach (which explains the present

by invoking the past, looking for origins), we should be using an "ex ante" approach that looks at the emergence

of change, allowing us to learn from the past about the present and for the future. The paper first briefly summarizes some of the difficulties encountered in implementing such a different approach, at the level of our cognition, our scientific practices, and our paradigms, and then illustrates some of the changes in perspective such a shift would bring about. In particular, rather than see the Maya world as a unit, and look at regional differences within it, this would create a perspective in which different, initially more or less independent, rural regional developments converge in a long-term socio-environmental co-evolution to create an urbanized Maya world. As part of that co-evolution, new 'tools for thought' are conceptualized, new values are discovered which enable new adaptations.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• IHOPE (Integrated History and Future of People on Earth) - International and interdisciplinary projects working to make the past better serve the future.   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage