Archaeology as a cosmopolitic practice

preliminary ideas from the recursive ontological approach

Abstract

With the strengthening of the Postmodern trends in the last decades of the twentieth century, the Archaeology took an important step towards recognizing its colonialist and disciplinary roots. This led to the development of different criticisms of Western Modern thought, among them, the illusion of the neutrality and scientific objectivity, which contributed to a refusal of the social and political responsibilities in the most of archaeological research. The different approaches that emerge from the Postmodernism are increasingly focused on the present, and on the impacts that our investigations and interpretations have on contemporary communities. This article will present a reflection on the recursive ontological approach as a tool for social action, based on the assumption of an expansion of this notion of society. By taking other ontologies, knowledges and philosophies seriously, this archaeological approach leads us to think about the presence and the action of other entities, other beings within different worlds. Other existences, which also become part of this archaeological practice and political relations. With this, I propose an initial discussion of what the Archaeology could be as a Cosmopolitical practice, based on a reflection on the presence and performance of textile beings/wraps among the Mayas of different temporalities and their participation in the Cosmopolitical relations of these groups.