Arqueologías críticas: El conflicto entre verdad y valor Critical archaeologies. The conflict between “truth” and “value”

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to the main epistemological problem that affects critical or radical archaeologies (marxist, feminist, postcolonial, etc.): Do political orientations impede objectivity? Should their practitioners be deemed of inferior ‘scientific quality’, as they are criticized by the positivist, mainstream discipline? First, this paper tries to deconstruct the so-called political neutrality of the positivist current, revealing its link to conservatism. Secondly, the article revises the relativist process in critical archaeologies, as a consequence of prevailing anti-essentialist trends in the post-modernist thinking. Following the ideas of Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek, an examination is made of the close parallels that exist between politics and social scientific activities. Finally, the paper acknowledges the role that archaeology, as the rest of social sciences, plays in the hegemonic articulations of the current world.