"I am not suggesting in any way that we should ignore the information contained in documents… We should focus more than we have done on the fact that documents are not neutral epistles, that they are not disinterested bearers of information about the past. Like other products of human creativity, they were, in fact, active in the production, negotiation and transformation of social relations. More particularly, they contributed to the creation and reproduction of technologies of oppression—as well as providing new opportunities for resistance."
— John Moreland, Archaeology and Text, p31
