Interpretive Archaeology: A Reader

✍ Scribed by Julian Thomas

• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 639
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

New forms of archaeology are emerging which position the discipline firmly within the social and cultural sciences. These approaches have been described as "post processual" or "interpretive" archaeology, and draw on a range of traditions of enquiry in the humanities, from Marxism and critical theory to hermeneutics, feminism, queer theory, phenomenology and post-colonial thinking. This volume gathers together a series of the canonical statements which have defined an interpretive archaeology. Many of these have been unavailable for some while, and others are drawn from inaccessible publications. In addition, a number of key articles are included which are drawn from other disciplines, but which have been influential and widely cited within archaeology. The collection is put into context by an editorial introduction and thematic notes for each section.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Figures......Page 9
Notes on contributors......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 16
1 Introduction: the polarities of post-processual archaeology......Page 18
PART I: ON THE CHARACTER OF ARCHAEOLOGY......Page 36
Introduction......Page 38
2 Fields of discourse: reconstituting a social archaeology......Page 40
3 Theoretical archaeology: a reactionary view......Page 50
4 The craft of archaeology......Page 73
5 Materialism and an archaeology of dissonance......Page 88
PART II: INTERPRETATION, INFERENCE, EPISTEMOLOGY......Page 98
Introduction......Page 100
6 Symbolism, meaning and context......Page 103
7 Hermeneutics and archaeology: on the philosophy of contextual archaeology......Page 114
8 Is there an archaeological record?......Page 135
9 On 'heavily decomposing red herrings': scientific method in archaeology and the ladening of evidence with theory......Page 162
10 Archaeology through the looking-glass......Page 175
PART III: SOCIAL RELATIONS, POWER AND IDEOLOGY......Page 214
Introduction......Page 216
11 The roots of inequality......Page 218
12 Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation......Page 228
13 Building power in the cultural landscape of Broome County, New York, 1880–1940......Page 245
14 Mortuary practices, society and ideology: an ethnoarchaeological study......Page 263
15 Redefining the social link: from baboons to humans......Page 283
PART IV: FEMINISM, QUEER THEORY AND THE BODY......Page 296
Introduction......Page 298
16 Homosexuality, queer theory and archaeology......Page 300
17 Power, bodies and difference......Page 307
18 The social world of prehistoric facts: gender and power in Palaeoindian research......Page 321
19 Bodies on the move: gender, power and material culture: gender difference and the material world......Page 334
20 Engendered places in prehistory......Page 346
PART V: MATERIAL CULTURE......Page 376
Introduction......Page 378
21 Interpreting material culture: the trouble with text......Page 380
22 The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process......Page 394
23 Material metaphor, social interaction and historical reconstructions: exploring patterns of association and symbolism in the Igbo-Ukwu corpus......Page 415
24 Interpreting material culture......Page 435
PART VI: ARCHAEOLOGY, CRITIQUE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY......Page 444
Introduction......Page 446
25 Can we recognise a different European past? A contrastive archaeology of later prehistoric settlements in southern England......Page 448
26 Discourses of identity in the interpretation of the past......Page 462
27 Toward a critical archaeology......Page 475
28 This is an article about archaeology as writing......Page 491
PART VII: SPACE AND LANDSCAPE......Page 506
Introduction......Page 508
29 The Berber house or the world reversed......Page 510
30 The temporality of the landscape......Page 527
31 Past practices in the ritual present: examples from the Welsh Bronze Age......Page 548
32 Monumental choreography: architecture and spatial representation in late Neolithic Orkney......Page 558
Bibliography......Page 578
D......Page 636
L......Page 637
S......Page 638
Y......Page 639