Overview

"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."

Full Product Details

Author:   Julian Thomas
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Leicester University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.90cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   1.399kg
ISBN:  

9780718501914

ISBN 10:   0718501918
Pages:   640
Publication Date:   01 January 2001
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Out of stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction - the polarities of post-processual archaeology, Julian Thomas. Part 1 On the character of archaeology: fields of discourse - reconstituting a social archaeology, John C. Barrett; theoretical archaeology - a reactionary view, Ian Hodder; the craft of archaeology, Michael Shanks and Randall McGuire; materialism and an archaeology of dissonance, Christopher Tilley. Part 2 Interpretation, inference, epistemology: symbolism, meaning and context, Ian Hodder; hermeneutics and archaeology - on the philosophy of contextual archaeology, Harald Johnsen and Bjornar Olsen; is there an archaeological record?, Linda Patrik; on heavily decomposing red herrings - scientific method in archaeology and the ladening of evidence with theory, Alison Wylie; archaeology through the looking glass, Tim Yates. Part 3 Social relations, power and ideology: the roots of inequality, Barbara Bender; conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation, Matthew Johnson; building power in the landscape of Broome County, New York 1880-1940, Randall McGuire; mortuary practices, society and ideology - an ethnoarchaeological study, Michael Parker Pearson; the meaning of social - from baboons to humans, Shirley Strum and Bruno Latour. Part 4 Feminism, queer theory and the body: homosexuality, queer theory and archaeology, Thomas Dowson; power, bodies and difference, Moira Gatens; the social world of prehistoric facts - gender and power in palaeoindian research, Joan Gero; bodies on the move - gender, power and material culture, Henrietta Moore; engendered places in prehistory, Ruth Tringham. Part 5 Material culture: interpreting material culture - the trouble with text, Victor Buchli; the cultural biography of things - commodification as process, Igor Kopytoff; material metaphor, social interaction and historical interpretations - exploring patterns of association and symbolism in the Igbo-Ukwu corpus, Keith Ray; interpreting material culture, Christopher Tilley. Part 6 Archaeology, critique and the construction of identity: can we recognize a different European past? a contrastive archaeology of later prehistoric settlements in Southern England, J.D. Hill; discourse of identity in the interpretation of the past, Sian Jones; towards a critical archaeology, Mark P. Leone et al; this is an article about archaeology as writing, Anthony Sinclair. Part 7 Space and landscape: the Berber House or the world reversed, Pierre Bourdieu; the temporality of the landscape, Tim Ingold; past practices in the ritual present - examples from the Welsh Bronze age, Paul Lane; monumental choreography - architecture and spatial representation in late Neolithic Orkney, Colin Richards.

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Julian Thomas is professor of archaeology at the Univeristy of Manchester.

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