A philosophical reflection on autonomy and vulnerability in the contextof the archaeological practice in the 21st century

• Autor(a) principal: Teixeira, Íris Beatriz Borges
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/40815
• topic: Arqueologia - Filosofia; Arqueologia - séc.21 - Aspectos morais; Teses de mestrado - 2019; Domínio/Área Científica::Humanidades::Filosofia, Ética e Religião

Archaeology plays an important role in the determination and the comprehension of the co-existence of identities between past and contemporary cultures. The archaeologist is required to think beyond temporal and physical borders throughout his studies of the human past, in pursuit of uncovering the material remains of past cultures whose settlement patterns do not reflect the current political and geographical organization into nationstates. In Part I of this thesis, entitled “Archaeological Practices in the 21st century”, an overview of a wide variety of ethical concerns related to the production of archaeological knowledge will be given first. The overview will be contextualized within the broader framework of the cultural practices and politics of the archaeological practice, understood as both a humanistic and scientific discipline, in the 21st century. For this purpose, the ethical, political and social implications of the choices made by European archaeologists working abroad will be discussed in some detail. The archaeologists’ involvement abroad has an impact on the establishment, maintenance and disruption of relationships between local communities and foreign investigators conducting archaeological research. Likewise, some of the most prominent implications of the practice of archaeology in zones of conflict will be introduced to the reader. Part II, entitled “Archaeology and Philosophy”, constitutes of a philosophical reflection on the current state of the archaeological practice in agreement with the preceding chapters of this thesis. The intention is to develop a philosophical framework within which it is possible to analyze many of the transformations of the last hundred years which have taken place in the archaeological profession. The alterations have taken place both due to the improvement of the technology available for archaeological excavations and because of the conduction of investigations abroad, which are never situated outside of the geopolitical condition of the 20th century and the early 21st century. The philosophical oeuvre of Paul Ricoeur, in particular his writings on history, ideology, utopia and his conception of the capable human being will serve as the background against which to describe the possibility of a different form of dialogue between archaeology and philosophy. First, the relationship between history, memory and the archaeological study of material cultures will be discussed with reference to Ricoeur’s philosophical thought. Different aspects of the french philosopher’s oeuvre will pave the way for a philosophical reflection on autonomy and vulnerability in the context of the archaeological practice in the 21st century. The illustration of these aspects will include Ricoeur’s conception of the capable human being, the triad of the ethical, the moral and practical reason and a Ricoeurian understanding of the political subject. Lastly, sue to the claims and beliefs expressed by different authoritative orders operating within the vast archaeological field questions on vulnerability and autonomy must be reconsidered in light of Ricoeur’s dialectic of ideology and utopia.