Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-d8cs5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T11:57:01.601Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heading south, looking north

Why we need a post-colonial archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Nick Shepherd
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Keywords

colonialismSouth Africapostcolonial archaeologyarchaeological theory
Type
Essay Competition
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , December 2002 , pp. 74 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andah, B.W., 1995a: European encumbrances to the development of relevant theory in African archaeology, in Ucko, P.J. (ed.), Theory in archaeology: a world perspective, London, 96–109.Google Scholar
Andah, B.W., 1995b: The theory and practice of African archaeology. A critical reflection, West African journal of archaeology 25, 89–111.Google Scholar
Andah, B.W., Adande, A., Folorunso, C.A. and Bagodo, O., 1994: African archaeology in the 21st century. Or, Africa, cultural puppet on a string? West African journal of archaeology 24, 152–159.Google Scholar
Atkinson, J.A., Banks, I.and O'Sullivan, J., (eds), 1996: Nationalism and archaeology. Scottish archaeological forum, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Biko, S., and Stubbs, A., 1978: I write what I like, London.Google Scholar
De Barros, P., 1990: Changing paradigms, goals and methods in the archaeology of Francophone West Africa, in Robertshaw, P., (ed.), A history of African archaeology, London, 155–172.Google Scholar
De Maret, P., 1990: Phases and facies in the archaeology of central Africa, in Robertshaw, P. (ed.), A history of African archaeology, London.Google Scholar
Dean, E.P., Hartmann, P. and Katzen, M., 1983: History in black and white. An analysis of South African school history textbooks, Paris.Google Scholar
Deetz, J., 1977: In small things forgotten: the archaeology of early American life, Garden City.Google Scholar
Derrida, J., 1986: Racism's last word, in Gates, H.L. (ed.), Race, writing and difference, Chicago, 329–338.Google Scholar
Diaz-Andreu, M. and Champion, T.C., 1996: Nationalism and archaeology in Europe: an introduction, in Diaz-Andreu, M and Champion, T.C., (eds), Nationalism and archaeology in Europe, London, 1–23.Google Scholar
Dorfman, A., 1998: Heading south, looking north, London.Google Scholar
Eagleton, T., 1983: Literary theory. An introduction, Oxford.Google Scholar
Fanon, F., 1967: The wretched of the earth, Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Gawe, S., and Meli, F., 1990: The missing past in South African history, in Stone, P. and Mackenzie, R. (eds), The excluded past. Archaeology in education, London, 99–108.Google Scholar
Hall, M., 1990: ‘Hidden history’: iron age archaeology in Southern Africa, in Robertshaw, P. (ed.), A history of African archaeology, London, 59–77.Google Scholar
Hall, M., 1997: The transformations and future of South African archaeology, WAC news. The world archaeological congress newsletter 5, 5–6.Google Scholar
Hall, M., 2000: Archaeology and the modern world. Colonial transcripts in South Africa and the Chesapeake, London.Google Scholar
Hassan, F.A., 1999: African archaeology; the call of the future, African affairs 98, 393–406.Google Scholar
Hodder, I., 1987: Bow ties and pet foods. Material culture and the negotiation of change in British industry, in Hodder, I. (ed.), The archaeology of contextual meanings, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Holl, A., 1990: West African archaeology: colonialism and nationalism, in Robertshaw, P. (ed.), A history of African archaeology, London, 296–308.Google Scholar
Isaac, G.L., 1985: Ancestors for us all. Towards broadening international participation in paleoan-thropological research, in -Delson, E. (ed.), Ancestors, the hard evidence. Proceedings of the symposium held at the American Museum of Natural History April 6–10, 1984, New York.Google Scholar
Karega-Munene, , 1996: The future of archaeology in Kenya, African archaeological review 13, 87–90.Google Scholar
Kohl, P.L., and Fawcett, C.P., 1995: Nationalism, politics, and the practice of archaeology, New York.Google Scholar
Kusimba, C.M., 1996: Archaeology in African museums, African archaeological review 13, 165–170.Google Scholar
Mazel, A.D., and Stewart, P.M., 1987: Meddling with the mind: the treatment of San hunter-gatherers and the origins of South Africa's Black population in recent South African history text-books, South African archaeological bulletin 42, 166–170.Google Scholar
Miller, D., 1991: Material culture and mass consumption, Oxford.Google Scholar
Musonda, F.B. 1990: African archaeology: looking forward, The African archaeological review 8, 3–22.Google Scholar
Posnansky, M. 1993: Coping with collapse in the 1990s, inSchmidt, P.R. and McIntosh, R.J. (eds), Plundering Africa's past, Bloomington, 143–163.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P.R., 1996: Rhythmed time and its archaeological implications, in Pwiti, G. and Soper, R. (eds), Aspects of African archaeology. Papers from the 10th congress of the PanAfrican association for prehistory and related studies, Harare, 655–662.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P.R. and McIntosch, R.J., (eds), 1996: Plundering Africa's past, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Shanks, M., and Tilley, C., 1987: Re-constructing archaeology. Theory and practice, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Shaw, T., 1997: The contemporary plundering of Africa's past, African archaeological review 14, 1–7.Google Scholar
Sheppard, P.J., 1990: Soldiers and bureaucrats. The early history of prehistoric archaeology in the Maghreb, in Robertshaw, P. (ed.), A history of African archaeology, London, 173–188.Google Scholar
Slemon, S., 1995: The scramble for post-colonialism, in Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G. and Tiffen, H. (eds), The post-colonial studies reader, London, 45–52.Google Scholar
Smith, A.B., 1983: The Hotnot syndrome. Myth-making in South African school textbooks, Social dynamics 9, 37–49.Google Scholar
Sowunmi, M.A., 1998: Beyond academic archaeology in Africa: the human dimension, African archaeological review 15, 163–172.Google Scholar
Trigger, B.G., 1984: Alternative archaeologies: nationalist, colonialist, imperialist, Man 19, 355–370.Google Scholar
Vines, A., 1991: Digging deep, Southern African review of books 4, 14–15.Google Scholar