Robert Johnson wrote:
 
>Those who practice archaeology with the approval
>of governments who effect policies of terror against indigenous peoples
>are complicite in these crimes. No amount of postmodernist apology can
>excuse it. I would suggest as a clue or education in the intellectual
>constructs of these offended sensitivities and amoral rationalizations
>that one read Jacque Derrida not as the philosopher of postmodernism, like
>enthroned pontificators such as Clifford Gertz, but rather as the
>ethnographer of postmodernism.
 
Why is it that everybody thinks postmodernism would excuse such actions and
reduce the responsibility of the individual? Maybe I have misunderstood a
lot of postmodern ethics, but by reading Zygmunt Bauman and Emmanuel
Levinas I was under the impression that the responsibility for =B4the Other=
=B4
is very much on their minds.
Archaeology has never been and should never be an escape from our daily
conflicts, whether these are political or not. On the contrary, our subject
ought to find ways to deal with at least some aspects of our problems. If
we don=B4t, this is all turned into an intellectual game for our own benefit=
.
I want to do more than that!
 
Aasa Gillberg
 
 
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Aasa Gillberg
Department of archaeology
University of Gothenburg
E-mail [log in to unmask]
 
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