Beyond crusades: how (not) to engage with alternative archaeologies

Author: Holtorf, Cornelius

Source: World Archaeology, Volume 37, Number 4, December 2005 , pp. 544-551(8)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Archaeologists have often felt uneasy when encountering alternative (fringe, cult, fantastic, pseudo-) archaeologies. Some have suggested that alternative approaches and their results must be disproved, while others have been calling for better public understanding of science. My contribution takes a different point of view. I emphasize the social and cultural needs that both scientific and alternative archaeologies address and suggest that the main significance of archaeology does not lie in the specific insights gained about the past but in the very process of engaging with the material remains of the past in the present. Critical understanding and dialogue, not dismissive polemics, is the appropriate way to engage with the multiple pasts and alternative archaeologies in contemporary society.

Keywords: Alternative archaeologies; public archaeology; relativism; archaeology in contemporary society

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438240500395813

Affiliations: 1: Lunds universitet, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens historia, Box 117, Lund, 221 00, Sweden

Publication date: 2005-12-01

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