TY - JOUR

T1 - Archaeological Encounters

T2 - Ethics and aesthetics under the mark of the Anthropocene

AU - Pétursdóttir, Þóra

AU - Sørensen, Tim Flohr

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - What legitimizes archaeological work in an age of global climate change, socio-political crises and economic recession? On what topics should archaeology focus its research questions, and what forms of archaeological engagement are not merely justifiable but able to make a difference in light of such challenges? Today, there is a tendency, we argue, that archaeological responses to current challenges are expected to align with a specific mode of conduct, political stance and genre, where, for example, a very particular notion of activism, responsibility and ethics is dominating. There is no denial that current challenges call for immediate instrumental reactions, but we contend that valuable reactions can – or even must – vary, and that more fundamental and slow ontological and epistemological change should also be nested within these responses. In this article, we explore what it means to care – what it means to be concerned – in the Anthropocene through archaeological practice and aesthetic engagement. By highlighting the relations between ethics and aesthetics, we explore ways in which we get in touch with the objects of concern, placing undecidability and speculation as dispositions equally important to urgency and impact.

AB - What legitimizes archaeological work in an age of global climate change, socio-political crises and economic recession? On what topics should archaeology focus its research questions, and what forms of archaeological engagement are not merely justifiable but able to make a difference in light of such challenges? Today, there is a tendency, we argue, that archaeological responses to current challenges are expected to align with a specific mode of conduct, political stance and genre, where, for example, a very particular notion of activism, responsibility and ethics is dominating. There is no denial that current challenges call for immediate instrumental reactions, but we contend that valuable reactions can – or even must – vary, and that more fundamental and slow ontological and epistemological change should also be nested within these responses. In this article, we explore what it means to care – what it means to be concerned – in the Anthropocene through archaeological practice and aesthetic engagement. By highlighting the relations between ethics and aesthetics, we explore ways in which we get in touch with the objects of concern, placing undecidability and speculation as dispositions equally important to urgency and impact.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Etik

KW - Æstetik

KW - Arkæologi

KW - Antropocæn

KW - Posthumanisme

KW - Spekulation

KW - Feminisme

KW - Ethics

KW - Aesthetics

KW - Archaeology

KW - The Anthropocene Era

KW - Speculation

KW - Posthumanism

KW - Feminism

U2 - 10.1017/S1380203823000028

DO - 10.1017/S1380203823000028

M3 - Journal article

VL - 30

SP - 50

EP - 67

JO - Archaeological Dialogues

JF - Archaeological Dialogues

SN - 1380-2038

IS - 1

ER -