Wybrane aspekty społecznego funkcjonowania wytworów wiedzy archeologicznej i archeologii we współczesnej Polsce

In the article an attempt has been made to conceptualise the presence and range of the functioning of the products of archaeological knowledge, indirectly also archaeology, in social space in modern Poland, in the context of broader transformations of modern man’s attitude towards the past. The ambition of the author has been to formulate certain regularities, observable in the processes of making prehistoric past present in modern times and to formulate specific developmental trends in this respect. The article describes the basic strategies of manifesting archaeological past, and shaping their trends, namely sensational attitude towards archaeological discoveries, reconstructionism, dramatisation of the past and its festivalisation. It also discusses the characteristic elements of the aforementioned trends, which create the specifics of the modern man’s approach towards the past, including the prehistoric past.