Glossary of Post-Modern Terms - Introduction to Archaeology | ARCH 2500, Study notes of Environmental Archaeology

Download Glossary of Post-Modern Terms - Introduction to Archaeology | ARCH 2500 and more Study notes Environmental Archaeology in PDF only on Docsity! GLOSSARY OF POST-MODERN TERMS agent or agency — someone assumed to have authority and power, causal ’ force, author — person who writes or creates a text, or one who is responsible for an outcome. celebrate — approve of something, applaud a point of view. cbronophonism — the modcrn assumption that time is chronological or lin- car. Post-modemists are opposed to chronophonism (Derrida 1981). countermemorializing analysis — an analysis that denies a referent reality, rejects foundations, and ignores origins (Ashley and Walker 1990b: 400). se-centering — absence of anything at the center or any overriding truth. This means concentrating attention on the margins. deconstruction — a post-modern method of analysis. Its goal is to undo all constructions. Deconstruction tears a text apart, reveals its contradic- tions and assumptions; its intent, however, is not to improve, revise, or offer a better version of the text. differend — difference in the sense of dispute, conflict, or disagreement about the meaning of language (Lyotard 1988b: 193-94). differance — a structuring principle that suggests definition rests not on the entity itself but in its positive and negative references to other texts. Meaning changes over time, and ultimately the attribution of meaning is put off, postponed, deferred, forever (Derrida 1972; 1981: 39-40). discourse — all that is written and spoken and all that invites dialogue or conversation. Discourse “even promotes its own reformulation” (Agger 1990: 37). evoking — acceptable post-modern alternative to re-presenting or repre- senting. It is assumed to free one’s analysis of objects, facts, descriptions, generalizations, experiments, and truth claims (Tyler 1986: 129~30). foundationalism — an attempt to ground inquiry or thought on pre-given principles assumed truc beyond “mere belief or unexamined practice” (Fish 1989: 342; Bernstein 1986: 8-12). Post-modernists are anti- foundational. They contend that “questions of fact, truth, correctness, validity, and clarity can neither be posed nor answered” (Fish 1989: 344). §gentalogy — history of the present that looks to the past for insight into today. It focuses on “local, discontinuous, disqualified, illegitimate knowledges.” Genealogy dismisses the possibility of any view of history as a “unitary body of theory which would filter, hierarchise, and order xii GLOSSARY - +. in the name of some true knowledge and some arbitrary idea of what constitutes a science and its objects” (Foucault 1980: 83). beroic — moder social scientists sometimes focus on one event or person; and in so doing, post-modemists argue, they create heroes, attach exces- sive importance to the capacities of a single individual to effect change or influence specific, dramatic events. Post-modemnists, rejecting this ap- proach (heroic analysis), neither focus on individuals nor construct he- toes. Many post-modemists call for the end of the subject, the death of the author. byper-reality — reality has collapsed, and today it is exclusively image, illu- sion, or simulation. The model is more real than the reality it supposedly represents. The hyper-real is “that which is already reproduced” (Bau- drillard 1983c: 146). It is a model “of a real without origin or reality” (Baudrillard 1983c: 2). dyper-space — post-modern term referring to the fact that our modern con- cepts of space are meaningless. Space doesn’t act according to modern assumptions. It has been annihilated, and spatial barriers have disap- peared. Everything is in geographical flux, constantly and unpredictably shifting in space. imploding, implosion — tendency for phenomena in a post-modern world to explode inwardly, thus destroying themsclves and one’s assumptions about them (Baudrillard 1983a). Meaning disappears altogether (Bau- drillard 1983c: 57). intertextual — infinitely complex interwoven interrelationships, “an end- fess conversation between the texts with no prospect of ever arriving at or being halted at an agreed point” (Bauman 1990: 427). Absolute in- tertextuality assumes that everything is related to everything else. logocentric — an adjective used to describe systems of thought that claim legitimacy by reference to external, universally truthful propositions. Post-modernists are opposed to logocentric thought. They say such sys- tems are really grounded in self-constituted logic. They consider them circular, self-referential, and self-satisfying. As post-modemnists see it, no grounds exist for defensible external validation or substantiation (Der- tida 1976: 49), moment ~ indefinite point in time with undctermined duration or nonspe- cific geographical location or place. Post-modernists also use this term to refer to the stages or steps of social analysis. move — as in chess, it is strategic. To “move” means to defend a position or take the discussion or analysis in a certain direction. narrative — post-modern opinion of this concept varies, depending on the type of narrative under discussion. Post-modernists severely criticize meta-narratives, global world views, mastercodes. Meta-narratives are modem and assume the validity of their own truth claims, however,