J.-C.

Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:

a historical epistemology
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data,
representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Costis Dallas
Director of Museum Studies & Associate Professor
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Research Fellow
Digital Curation Unit-IMIS, Athena Research Centre
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Gardin: an outsider to mainstream
theoretical archaeology?
Gardins work only of merely methodological,
rather than epistemological and theoretical
importance
Bruce Trigger, A History of Archaeological
Thought , 2nd edition (2006)
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
From structural linguistics to
semantic networks
The boundary between syntax and semantics
becomes so fuzzy that it is not possible any more
to regard syntax as independent nor to confine
semantics to an interpretative function.
We have now come to the broader concept of
semantic networks, embodying the vast array of
relational or combinatorial information about
the world.
Document analysis and linguistic theory (1973)
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
The birth of the logicist program
Expressing semantic and semantic representation through
a formal language, accounting for:
a) the need to categorize the symbols of the vocabulary
(words, descriptors) in such a way that formation rules
equivalent to the phrase-structure rules of grammar
can be stated adequately with no regard to the
grammatical status customarily assigned to the words
concerned,
b) the need to account for the derivation of propositions
from one another, in the adopted formalism, as a
necessary component in the understanding of
language behaviour.
Document analysis and linguistic theory (1973)
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Archaeological constructs (1980)
My goal is to present the schematisation as well
as certain aspects to be drawn regarding the
scientific status of archaeological constructions,
the opposition [] between traditional [and]
new archaeology, the virtues and limitations of
formal procedures [] in handling archaeological
data, the need for reform of publication patterns
in archaeology etc.
Archaeological constructs (1980), p. xi
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
An account of archaeological
research practice
I am not proposing a new handbook on
archaeological theory, from which students
can learn the techniques of observation and
interpretation [] my goal is an analysis of
the mental operations carried out in
archaeological constructions of all sorts, from
the collecting of data to the writing of an
article or book in published form.
Archaeological constructs (1980), p. xi
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Archaeology according to Gardin
The universe of intellectual constructions
based on the study of objects of all sorts, with
or without inscriptions, as well as on the
study of inscriptions themselves, or for that
matter any other written sources; [] works
of art [and other] material remains; artifacts
[and] natural remains.
Archaeological constructs (1980), p. 4.
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Gardins archaeological ontology
Works addressing material traces of the
past spanning the dimensions of local (L),
temporal (T) and human (H) domains
Reasoning processes involved in both
scholarly (scientific) and amateur
knowledge production and publication
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Compilations vs. explanations
Category of
constructions
Entities
concerned
Major function
Compilations Material
remains, and
their attributes
Retrieval
Explanations Ancient men,
their history and
modes of life
Theory
Archaeological constructs (1980), p. 148
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Archaeological pragmatics
the course taken for describing each class
(of archaeological objects) necessarily rests
upon more or less learned and explicit
considerations regarding the present or
potential utility of those classes for explaining
the variability of archaeological record.
Archaeological constructs (1980), p. 20
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
On archaeological publication
A call for an intellectual development of
archaeology towards new modes of
publication, beyond material digitisation
A repositioning and retention of printed
publications as vehicles for narrativity
A complementarity between logicist digital
media and narrative printed publication
Still, a separation between the two genres
Calcul et narrativit dans les publications
archologiques (1999)
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
On archaeological publication, again
Electronic publications are here regarded as a
working tool allowing a community of
dispersed scholars to work in a cooperative
and cumulative fashion and to publish the
results of their research through a world wide
network.
A combination of narrative and a logicist
component to publication
The Arkeotek project (with V. Roux, 2004)
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Logicist publication lives on
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Science vs. Literature
I should end my excursion into the ways of formal
reasoning by a defense of phenomenological inquiry;
the two forms of mental activity are for me alternative
ways by wihich we give free rein to the same impulse,
ignorant of its origin or destination; but aware at least
of the aberrations that inevitably occur when one
form of knowledge want to impose the condemnation
of the other. I therefore do not consider tolerance in
this case as a matter of ethics, but rather, in an
evolutionary perspective, as a matter of survival.
After Archaeological constructs (1980), p. 180
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
On the third way
On the third way
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data, representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
J.-C. Gardin on archaeological data,
representation and knowledge:
a historical epistemology
Costis Dallas
Costis.Dallas@utoronto.ca
C.Dallas@dcu.gr