Archaeology

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Revision as of 10:07, 27 September 2010

Archaeology (Assignment 3)

‘Archaeology’ is the approach Michel Foucault used to writing history (he used this during the 1960’s, in the 1970’s he used the approach of ‘genealogy’). Gutting (2008) states that: ‘The premise of the archaeological method is that systems of thought and knowledge (epistemes or discursive formations, in Foucault's terminology) are governed by rules, beyond those of grammar and logic, that operate beneath the consciousness of individual subjects and define a system of conceptual possibilities that determines the boundaries of thought in a given domain and period.’ O’Farrell (2007) puts it as follows: ‘Archaeology is about examining the discursive traces and orders left by the past in order to write a 'history of the present'. This means that by using archaeology, you look at the history to understand how we have become what we are today. You can look at the past and examine how that past created the future. Foucault traces back the emergence of disciplines in certain places and times, responding to particular problems. In that way, we can understand how they emerged (O. Kramsch, personal communication, 17 september 2010). The next quote makes clear that although archaeology is a describing method which focuses on the past, it also has a critical effect on the present:

‘Foucaults archeologische werkwijze is bedoeld om een diagnose van de eigen cultuur te geven en haar illusies bloot te leggen. Archeologie werkt beschrijvend en reconstruerend, maar heeft juist daardoor een ontmaskerende of kritische uitwerking op het heersende spreken en weten, omdat ze deze heersende opvattingen open moet breken om hun verborgen historische ondergrond zichtbaar te maken.’ (Tamminga, 2007)

Sources:

- Gutting, G. (2008). Michel Foucault: Foucaults Critiques of Historical Reason. Vinddatum 21 september 2010, op Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy via http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/

- O’Farrell, C. (2007). Michel Foucault, Key Concepts: Archeology. Vinddatum 21 september 2010, op http://www.michel-foucault.com/concepts/index.html

- Tamminga, J.W. (2007). De gereedschapskist van Foucault. Vinddatum 21 september 2010, op http://artikelenjwtamminga.blogspot.com/2007/05/de-gereedsskapskist-van-foucault.html