Ethics, Positionality, and Pragmatism: Archaeological Approaches to Identity and the Role of Archaeological Practice in Conflict Transformation

Summary

The ‘ontological turn’ in archaeology encourages the decentering of the human subject, and the longstanding focus upon identity, in favour of exploring material relationalities. While the discipline may congratulate itself for finally finding a way out of the twin traps of Enlightenment dualism and the humanism which underpins neoliberal geopolitics, it runs the risk of becoming even less relevant to society at large at a time when global conflicts are widely understood through the lens of competing and contested identities. Such identities are often framed as rooted in archaeological pasts as much mythical as material, but no less efficacious in the present. Drawing from experience in Northern Ireland, the discussion will focus upon the contribution of pragmatic philosophy in not only shaping ethical archaeological practice in conflict and post-conflict setting, but allowing for a significant and socially valuable role in conflict transformation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22016