The Craft of Archaeology and Dialogue with the Public

Abstract

Over the last decades, especially among the postprocessualy oriented archaeologists, the link between the research into the past and various relations of domination in the modern world has been explicitly articulated, as well as the ways in which the discipline engages in the dialogue with its social context, widely encompassed by the notion of the public. On the other hand, the eminent representatives of other theoretical approaches in archaeology, such as Gordon Childe, have argued for the purpose of archaeological research in the search for knowledge leading to more just and human society much before this clearly value-oriented proclamation. The message conveyed by archaeologists to the public depends on the choice of the segment of this wide notion and whose interests an individual researcher decides to enforce, regardless of the theoretical and methodological inclinations.

Keywords

• archaeology and the public
• interests of the public
• responsibility of researcher
• relations of domination
• Gordon Childe and Gustaf Kossina