Ozymandias, King of Kings: Postprocessual Radical Archaeology as Critique
- 1 October 1990
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in American Antiquity
- Vol. 55 (4) , 673-689
- https://doi.org/10.2307/281245
Abstract
InRe-Constructing Archaeology(1987a) andSocial TheoryandArchaeology(1987b), Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley argue for an antiscience radical archaeology as critique. They use deconstructionist sceptical arguments to conclude that there is no objective past and that our representations of the past are only texts that we produce on the basis of our sociopolitical standpoints. In effect, they contend that there is no objective world, that the world itself is a text that human beings write. This is a form of subjective idealism. Their critique is a nihilistic attack on all objective knowledge.Keywords
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