Empirical evaluation of a methodology for argumentative and ontological analysis of archaeological remains

Computer Application and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conference 2022 (CAA 2022)

Oxford. Reino Unido
Congreso. 2022

Introduction

We often detect opposing opinions on the same issue in social debates, something that generates divisions between the agents involved. Mansilla de la Sierra is an example of this. It was a village located in La Rioja (Spain) that was surrounded by the Najerilla, Gatón and Cambrones rivers and was inundated due to the construction of a swamp. In this case, we observe two different discursive approaches: on the one hand, that of an evicted people, forced to abandon their home and their heritage that strives to keep it alive; on the other, an institutional discourse that justifies its actions by putting economic benefit first. Our main goal with this pilot study, part of our PhD degree project, is to test our new analysis methodology made to represent, analyse, and interpret complex discourses. To achieve this goal, we use the ontological analysis, to collect the most relevant entities of the case study, and the argument analysis, which will allow us to objectively verify how the arguments are constructed.

In relation to the case studied, it is contextualized at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Spanish hydraulic policy found in the swamps a satisfactory solution for the country’s agrarian problem. During the Franco era, their construction were executed and hundreds of villages were flooded. However, Mansilla has a peculiarity, and that is that, during the dry season, the old village emerges, revealing what remains left. This has made possible to maintain the economy of the new village, constructed after the inundation, also called Mansilla de la Sierra, which benefits from the rural tourism that such a scenario generates. In addition, the neighbourhood and the people close to the village are an example of community involved in the defense and maintenance of the archaeological heritage, as evidenced by the various restorations paid for by the City Council of the only heritage building that was saved from the flood: the hermitage of Santa Catalina.

Methods and materials

We have analysed five texts in total: one journalistic article, one post from a personal blog, two administrative texts and one scientific dissemination article. The election of these discursive genres obeys to the attempt to bring us closer to the arguments of the most relevant agents in the history of Mansilla: the Franco government, the tourists who revive the village's economy, the opinion of an expert in the area's heritage and the local press.

Regarding analysis, we employed two perspectives. First, an ontological analysis was used to obtain agents, actions, places, etc., referred to in the texts. To do this, we used CHARM (Cultural Heritage Reference Abstract Model, www.charminfo.org) (César González-Pérez et al., 2018), an abstract ontological model of cultural heritage expressed in the ConML (www.conml.org) (César González-Pérez, 2018) modelling language. The Bundt software toolset was employed to create, store, and manage associated ontological models. Secondly, discourse analysis was used to describe the inference and dialogical structures (Budzynska & Reed, 2011) present in the texts. To do this we used IAT/ML, a recent methodology developed by Incipit CSIC and University of Santiago de Compostela researchers. The LogosLink toolset was employed to store and process the associated discourse models. Finally, we combined the models obtained from these two types of analysis to gain deep information about Mansilla de la Sierra.

Results and discussion

The main result of this pilot study has been the development of the above-described analysis methodology as well as the empirical experimentation with it based on the digital tool LogosLink. We have linked the ontological and the argumentative analysis about the case of Mansilla de la Sierra. Using denotations, we have been able to link the relevant objects that ontologically define the village with the different forms of allusion to them found in the texts. We also have found that these differences could be based on the agents and their position about the Mansilla de la Sierra flooding. In addition, the argumentative relations show information about the relationship between the objects and how these are defended in positions both related to and contrary to the construction of the swamp and the consequential flood.

From this study, we can expand the use of our methodology to other heritage issues, but also to other social issues currently under discussion related to racism and feminism.

Moreover, in a later discourse analysis based on critical discourse analysis, it will be possible to obtain a general view about the discursive strategies used to value and connote certain ideas on the subject studied. In addition, we have the advantage of minimizing the possible subjectivity of the researcher in the analysis of social issues with political implications, one of the greatest criticisms made to this discipline. Finally, we think that out methodology can be useful to identify the common and irreconcilable points of opposing positions in current social debates about archaeological elements to advance them.

Discourse analysis. Argumentation analysis. Ontologies. Cultural heritage.