Inessential archaeologies: problems of exclusion in Americanist archaeological thought
نویسنده
چکیده
This paper will present an intellectual history of Americanist historical archaeology as it developed from the 1960s onwards within the context of processual archaeology and the resulting marginalization of studies of the recent past within Americanist archaeology. The paper will explore the intellectual problems and miss-steps caused by the artificial prehistory/history dichotomy prevalent in American archaeology. While many ‘prehistorians’ see historical archaeologies as inessential to their research, I will discuss contributions historical archaeology has made to the discipline, and the potential contributions of the sub-discipline more broadly to archaeological interpretation (or an archaeological historiography).
منابع مشابه
The Direct Historical Approach, Analogical Reasoning, and Theory in Americanist Archaeology
Prior to the early 1950s, Americanist archaeologists, given their interest in chronology, routinely searched for direct historical connections between ethnographically documented cultures and archaeological cultures. In those instances where clear evolutionary connections existed between ethnographic and prehistoric cultures, the ethnic affinities of the latter could be assessed, chronologies o...
متن کاملSession title: ISLAND ARCHAEOLOGIES: THEMES AND CHALLENGES Organizers: Part 1: Island Archaeologies
Island Archaeology is a fascinating yet often under-represented aspect of archaeological investigation. Nonetheless, the last decade has brought islands into focus as a promising field for the development of archaeological theory and method. A key strength of the island approach is that it encourages productive comparisons between data and models derived from different geographical areas and pe...
متن کاملArchaeologies that hurt; descendants that matter: a pragmatic approach to collaboration in the public interpretation of African-American archaeology
Pragmatism’s anti-essentialist emphasis on contingency and plurality and its notion of truthas-created (not discovered) have important implications for the interpretation of archaeological data, and for the ‘public presentation’ of archaeological research. This paper will examine a pragmatically oriented project in Brazoria, Texas, USA, in which archaeologists and local citizens (including site...
متن کاملArchaeo-ethnography, auto-archaeology: Introducing archaeologies of the contemporary past
Abstract After significant research effort and publications over the course of a decade, a new generation of writings and research into archaeologies of the contemporary past is beginning to emerge, with a social and political awareness that appears more acute and more focused than before. Perhaps it is not too much of an exaggeration to say that this new generation of contemporary archaeologie...
متن کاملBook Review of 'Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies' Edited by Ethan E. Cochrane and Andrew Gardner
Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies, edited by Ethan E. Cochrane and Andrew Gardner, grew out of a seminar at the Institute for Archaeology at University College London in 2007. It consists of 15 chapters by archaeologists who self-identify themselves as practitioners who emphasize the benefits of evolutionary or interpretive approaches to the study of the archaeological record. While t...
متن کامل