Doug Charles on Shades of the Past

Archeologists are ... coming to appreciate that there are different pasts that can be (re)constructed. Anglo-American archeology has been largely defined within a male-oriented and capitalist society, but alternative interpretations are emerging ... [N]o-one seems yet to have escaped from the various dimensions that define Western thought. We are either a Romantic, or we are Enlightened. We see structure, or we see process. We believe in progress or a steady state, internal or external causality, gradual or abrupt change. The history of archeology consists of the reworking of these and related themes. Perhaps it is time to step back-—or, rather, step down-—and admit that none of us has a privileged perspective. We simply wear different shades.

Douglas K. Charles. Shading the past, American Anthropologist 94(4):919. 1992