A prolegomenon to Jungian archaeology: part one

Creating a new field of study is a daunting task, even in how it should be described. At first I was going to call it a discipline, but that presupposes that it will be taught.While you can take courses on Jungian mythology and even on Jungian writing (and perhaps, then become another Hermann Hesse or Robertson Davies). Jungian archaeology has never even been a concept and the term has only been used, erroneously, to refer to Jungian mythology as was practised by Joseph Campbell and Karl Kerényi.

Jungian archaeology will probably focus on practical aspects and not so much on theory, and that practical side will include interpretation (perhaps the most important of all of its parts); the selection of appropriate and efficient archaeological teams; the application of transdisciplinary methods which will include the communication to a broader audience of its results. There would also be no definable barrier between the archaeologist and the public in general. The most successful archaeologists would be archaeologist, slash.... and anyone who claimed only to be a professional archaeologist might solicit more pity than admiration. The day when people can be placed within boxes is rapidly coming to an end in all areas of life.

The impetus to do this is because I see archaeology more expressive of individual psychologies than many other subjects and that extends even to the original decision to have an interest in archaeology. How this will develop, I have no idea. I am thinking of this blog as creating the concepts and dealing with the emerging problems in order to write a book called Jungian Archaeology, but it might turn out that at some point the blog will run parallel to, and be about, writing the book. I would like to see contributions from every sort of person appearing in the comments, but just because you build something it does not mean that people will come. I hope, though, that the thought of helping to create a new field of study might appeal to the more adventurous. This series (the prolegomenon) will not be very long, but other series will appear from time to time about the overall subject.Each title will carry the phrase "Jungian archaeology".

Tomorrow, introducing interpretation.


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