Methodological Innovations between Biographical Disruptions and Disciplinary Growth: The Early Years of Georges Laplace and Jean-Claude Gardin in Archaeology (L'innovation méthodologique, entre bifurcation personnelle et formation des disciplines : les entrées en archéologie de Georges Laplace et de Jean-Claude Gardin

Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines, 31, p. 113-139

Posted: 28 Dec 2017

See all articles by Sébastien Plutniak

Sébastien Plutniak

University of Bordeaux - Centre Émile Durkheim; University of Toulouse - TRACES

Date Written: November 8, 2017

Abstract

English Abstract: What are the reasons leading some researchers to advocate the application of certain methods on the ground that they are more precise and more systematic, even though they are also more abstract and more constraining than those currently in use? This question is examined here through a review of the evolution of the academic career of two French archaeologists, Georges Laplace and Jean-Claude Gardin. Their earliest works, dating from the 1950s, were characterized by the application of more abstract methodologies, based on formalization or on the use of computation. In the following decades, Laplace and Gardin’s approach remained marginal in France, even though at the same time, similar perspectives were becoming popular not only among English-speaking archaeologists but also in other academic fields in France. The biographical perspective adopted in this paper allows us to highlight the parallel trajectories and the tensions existing between the epistemical, ethical, biographical, and political dimensions that shaped the careers of Laplace and Gardin. As such, their academic experiences appear as the most radical forms of the contemporary aspiration to modernize and professionalize archaeology.

French Abstract: Quelles raisons peuvent amener des chercheurs à plaider en faveur de l’introduction de méthodes jugées plus précises et systématiques mais se révélant aussi plus abstraites et contraignantes en pratique ? La question est examinée à partir des parcours de deux archéologues français, Georges Laplace et Jean-Claude Gardin qui, dès les années 1950, se distinguent par leurs propositions méthodologiques fondées sur la formalisation ou le calcul. Celles-ci restent toutefois relativement isolées au cours des décennies suivantes, alors même que des propositions similaires connaissent un succès en archéologie anglophone ou dans d’autres disciplines. Par une approche biographique on met en évidence les équivalences et les tensions établies entre les critères épistémiques et éthiques, biographiques et politiques qui caractérisent ces expériences, lesquelles apparaissent comme les formes les plus radicales d’une aspiration contemporaine à la modernisation et à la professionnalisation de l’archéologie.

Keywords: History of Science, Biography, Archaeological Methods, Professionalization, Applied Mathematics

Suggested Citation

Plutniak, Sébastien, Methodological Innovations between Biographical Disruptions and Disciplinary Growth: The Early Years of Georges Laplace and Jean-Claude Gardin in Archaeology (L'innovation méthodologique, entre bifurcation personnelle et formation des disciplines : les entrées en archéologie de Georges Laplace et de Jean-Claude Gardin (November 8, 2017). Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines, 31, p. 113-139, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3090077

Sébastien Plutniak (Contact Author)

University of Bordeaux - Centre Émile Durkheim ( email )

Bordeaux
France

University of Toulouse - TRACES ( email )

Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
5, allées Antonio Machado
Toulouse
France

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