Towards an archaeology of an epistemologist's epistemology

Abstract

This contribution presents some time-ravaged personal memories from and reflections on more than four decades of interactions with the Festschrift’s “target” – from our first encounter in the late 1970s to the present. The philosopher was an observer from the very beginning. He apparently feels most comfortable “on the fence”, observing the empirical work of others, including his archaeology colleagues in field- and laboratory work, and commenting on the theory-ladenness and the implicit assumptions underlying their observations. He proves to be very consistent in his various passions, centered around (indeed) fence sitting, identifying the construction and role of “boundaries” (human-animal/sapiensNeanderthal) through time, studying their underlying values and exploring the many beauties, hauntings, and mysteries of handaxes and tribal art. The contribution provides some (admittedly: half-baked) building stones for an archaeology of the epistemological Werdegang of this epistemologist.