Archaeologia Polona

The ambiguous concept of "source"

Anna Zalewska

The paper discusses some cognitive and social implications of dealing with texts, things and thoughts treated as "sources" of/from or about the past. The stress is put here on the outcome of such interactions. The richness of options of dealing with the "category of source" is signaled by a presentation of some elements of philosophical reflection (among others "topos of the void", the challenge of "infinitism", etc.) which can be prescribed also to scientific activities. The analysis of ways in which "archaeological and historical sources" were and are understood is treated here as a source of knowledge on circumstances which shape the past in the present. The author uses anthropology as a model for critical involvement with a specific cognitive situation rather than a distanced and magisterial explanation of such a situation. Consequently, the latest debate on the ethnogenesis of the Slavs is presented as an example of the fundamental dissension that is affecting Polish scholars in regard to their treatment of sources and their related informational potential. In conclusion, it is recommended to replace dichotomist perception, all forms of radicalism, as well as classically understood epistemology with an "intermediate point of view" and with cognition placed within a broader, historically changing, psychological, interpersonal, inter-institutional context open to searching for the senses.

Keywords: ambiguity of scientific categories, archaeological source, historical source, sourceness

Language: English