Power and Production of Knowledge in Romanian Archaeology (And a Few Comments on Ribeiro and Giamakis)
Power and Production of Knowledge in Romanian Archaeology (And a Few Comments on Ribeiro and Giamakis)

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to situate within the context of Romanian archaeology the activities of the Spring Schools conducted under the international research program (2021–2023) “The Construction of Knowledge in Archaeology and Art History in Southeastern Europe,” focusing on the schools’ aim of contributing to the development of critical thinking in the archaeologies of the region. It first notes that the issue of the need for critical thinking, and consequently for archaeological theory, was raised in Romania approximately a quarter of a century ago, but the number of those interested in this topic has not increased significantly since then. In an attempt to explain why this happened, the paper then situates the evolution of the local debates around critical thinking within the wider context of post-state socialism Romanian archaeology. It argues that the rejection of the topic is not due to a lack of resources to keep up with the Western race for ever-newer theories and methods (pace Ribeiro and Giamakis), but rather to the fact that critical thinking is not advantageous for career promotion and power acquisition within the profession. The chances that the younger generations of Romanian archaeologists will show greater interest in critical thinking and select from the everincreasing number of innovations available to archaeologists are slim. Nevertheless, the Spring Schools endeavoured to keep this interest alive through lectures, workshops, colloquia, publication of their proceedings, and – last but not least – the professional prestige of the participants.

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