The dream of reason

Abstract

Modernity is central to the concept of archaeology. It is not only part and parcel of the modern project, but it also throws light on the constitution of modernity itself. Although archaeologists usually reveal the higher degrees of oppression and alienation brought by the modern world, they consider that modernity is, in the first place, a productive process, in that it gives rise to new things - be they good or bad. They also tend to consider it successful in an evolutionary sense: wherever it appears, modernity wins at the expense of other rationalities, social forms, material cultures and economies, imposing its reason. This is true in most cases, but it is not necessarily so. This article explores the destructive side of modernity through a case study from Ethiopia. For this purpose, I will use archaeology to engage with a landscape where modernity has brought immense devastation and has eventually failed.