Archaeology is no longer an invasive and androcentric pastime practiced by European dilettantes with shared âvalues.â But Archaeology remains burdened by imperial, colonial and neo-colonial values that linger and fester. Codified, these values harden into âethicsâ with culturally and temporally absolute foundations. However, in earlier Western and other culturesâ thoughts and deeds, ethics are acknowledged as contextual, shifting and negotiated entanglements of intent and practice that often conflict. The wordâs derivation from the Greek Äthika philosophia or âmoral philosophyâ explicitly situates ethics as socially and politically constructed. Archaeology can study ethical formations by employing different timescales ranging from the longue duree to the very short term and by focusing its potent techniques of cultural surveillance on the origin, history and application of âethicsâ in diverse cultural, economic, political and temporal contexts. However, archaeologists can also mask these contexts unless they are adequately aware of Archaeologyâs history and of their location in a âglobalisedâ world order. Archaeologists must balance personal, situational and institutional ethics with regard to people, objects and places past, present and future â no easy task. For example, is âlootingâ artefacts to feed oneâs family ethical? How is excavation â a destructive technique â ever justified? Is modern Indigenous re-use of artefacts, places and symbols cultural appropriation or cultural continuation? Do objects and landscapes have ârightsâ? Responses to such questions are seldom absolute, but neither need they be debilitatingly relativistic. By adopting global coverage that pairs cutting-edge theory with successful and failed case studies, lacunae surrounding foundational disciplinary concepts like the archaeological ârecordâ; âstewardshipâ, âmultivocalityâ, as well broader concerns of race, class and gender canbe discussed and acted upon - materialising a negotiated best practice for the social sciences in a post-colonial world. Ethical Archaeologies: the politics of social justice would use established and emergent expertise in southern and northern hemispheres to comprehensively and accessibly discuss ethics in the practice of archaeology and related fields such as anthropology, museology, indigenous studies, law, education, heritage management and tourism.
