A Plurality of Pluralisms: Collaborative Practice in Archaeology

Wylie, Alison

Abstract

Innovative modes of collaboration between archaeologists and Indigenous communities are taking shape in a great many contexts, in the process transforming conventional research practice. While critics object that these partnerships cannot but compromise the objectivity of archaeological science, many of the archaeologists involved argue that their research is substantially enriched by them. I counter objections raised by internal critics and crystalized in philosophical terms by Boghossian, disentangling several different kinds of pluralism evident in these projects and offering an analysis of why they are epistemically productive when they succeed. My central thesis is that they illustrate the virtues of epistemic inclusion central to proceduralist accounts of objectivity, but I draw on the resources of feminist standpoint theory to motivate the extension of these social-cognitive norms beyond the confines of the scientific community.

Citation

Wylie, A. (2015). A Plurality of Pluralisms: Collaborative Practice in Archaeology. In F. Padovani, A. Richardson, & J. Y. Tsou (Eds.), Objectivity in science : new perspectives from science and technology studies (189-210). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14349-1_10

• Online Publication Date: Mar 25, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Dec 14, 2015
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Pages: 189-210
• Series Title: Boston studies in the philosophy and history of science
• Book Title: Objectivity in science : new perspectives from science and technology studies.
• Chapter Number: 10
• ISBN: 9783319143484
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14349-1_10
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1673287
• Contract Date: Dec 14, 2015