caa a22 4500 463254988 CHVBK 20180405153352.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170326e20070901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10816-007-9037-1 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10816-007-9037-1 Gero Joan Department of Anthropology, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 20016, Washington, DC, USA aut Honoring Ambiguity/Problematizing Certitude [Elektronische Daten] [Joan Gero] In this paper I argue that the practice of archaeology over-emphasizes and over-rewards unambiguous certainty in our interpretations, even though our conclusions are usually drawn from necessarily partial, underdetermined and complex evidence. I argue that full or partial erasure of ambiguity from our data and from our interpretive assertions does not serve the long-term interests of the discipline; that a feminist practice aimed at more nuanced understandings of the past and open to more subtle, multivalenced notions of reality, must accept ambiguity as a central feature of archaeological interpretation. After I review familiar strategies that are used to obscure troubling areas of uncertainty in archaeology, I urge feminist practice to resist employing these "mechanisms of closure” in our work. It is only by openly recognizing and preserving the ambiguity that resides in messy data arrangements today that we stand any hope of fuller and richer understandings in the future. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2007 Feminist practice nationallicence Theory nationallicence Epistemology nationallicence Ambiguity nationallicence Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 14/3(2007-09-01), 311-327 1072-5369 14:3<311 2007 14 10816 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-007-9037-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-007-9037-1 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Gero Joan Department of Anthropology, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 20016, Washington, DC, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 14/3(2007-09-01), 311-327 1072-5369 14:3<311 2007 14 10816 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer