Introduction: Pour une histoire de la prehistoire en Oceanie (Towards a History of Pacific Prehistory)

Abstract

As part of the new historiographical movement on Pacific archaeology, this work offers a particular reflection on the history of French-speaking Oceanian archaeology, whether French, Belgian or relating to the French-speaking archipelagos of the Pacific. 13 contributions cross the various perspectives of archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, curators and writers. The authors question the epistemological context, the actors, the practices and the institutions that have contributed to opening up this new field of research and to giving it a place in the institutional landscape of French and international science. This volume is the result of a symposium organized in Marseille in May 2016 at the initiative of the CBAP project The Collective Biography of Archeology in the Pacific - a Hidden History supported by The Australian National University, and in collaboration with the CREDO laboratory ( Center for Research and Documentation on Oceania, UMR 7308) and the Prehistoric Ethnology team of the ArScAn laboratory (Archaeology and Sciences of Antiquity, UMR 7041). The topics covered range from the history of ideas and epistemological analysis to the biographical approach to “lived science”; from contextualizing and reassessing collections or ancient texts to reflecting on the dangers of presentism and the potential of historiographical analyzes to develop innovative research perspectives in archaeology. The studies collected in this volume demonstrate the importance of applying a critical and historically informed look at our own disciplinary past. They allow everyone to question the intellectual, socio-political and even ideological and personal heritage carried more or less consciously by our work, which in turn contributes to the circulation and transmission of knowledge and practices. These questions of representation also affect the use and integration of archaeological stories in nationalist, colonialist or post-colonialist and identity discourses. Finally, they evoke the responsibility that science and scientists can assume in the dissemination and clarification of certain ideas and knowledge. Show more