Download or read book Archaeology as a Process written by Michael John O'Brien and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The publication in 1962 of Lew Binford's paper "Archaeology as Anthropology" is generally considered to mark the birth of processualism--a critical turning point in American archaeology. In the hands of Binford and other young University of Chicago graduates of the 1960s, this "new" archaeology became the mainstream approach in the U.S. The realignment that the processualists proposed was so thorough that its effects are still being felt today. Predictably, processualism also spun off a number of other "isms," several of which grew up to challenge its supremacy. Archaeology as a Process traces the intellectual history of Americanist archaeology in terms of the research groups that were at the forefront of these various approaches, concentrating as much on the archaeologists as it does on method and theory, thus setting it apart from other treatments published in the last fifteen years. Peppered with rare photographs of well-known archaeologists in some interesting settings, the book documents the swirl and excitement of archaeological controversy for the past forty years with over 1,600 references and an in-depth treatment of all the major intellectual approaches. The contributors examine how archaeology is conducted--the ins and outs of how various groups work to promote themselves--and how personal ambition and animosities can function to further rather than retard the development of the discipline.
Download or read book Hunter gatherer Archaeology as Historical Process written by Kenneth E. Sassaman and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Papers from a seminar held in 2008 at the Amerind Foundation in Dragoon, Ariz.
Download or read book Processual Archaeology written by Amber Johnson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2004-11-30 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Processual archaeologists seek to explain variability in the static archaeological record we observe in the present as a necessary first step toward learning how to learn about the operation of cultural dynamics in the past. The approach is a diverse and productive one that focuses on developing learning strategies. Researchers pursuing processual archaeology have already discovered a great deal about the archaeological record and about past dynamics, and there is a huge potential for building on the foundation laid thus far. The contributors to this volume provide clearly written research articles that are easily accessible to upper-level undergraduates and professional archaeologists. Although the papers do not focus on a single region, time period, or domain of observation (e.g. settlement patterns or lithics or site structure), they are integrated by shared goals for archaeology. This book clearly demonstrates that processual archaeology, far from having been replaced by post-processual archaeology, is becoming more and more powerful as our analytic sophistication and knowledge of the archaeological record grow.
Download or read book Archaeology on the Threshold written by Joseph D. Wardle and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2022-12-30 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New perspectives on transitions in human history This book is about transitional periods of cultural and environmental change as seen through the lenses of archaeology and ethnography. Incorporating data from across six continents and tracing the human experience from the Late Pleistocene to the present, these chapters offer a global comparative perspective on transitional states. Questions of causality are considered, as are hypotheses about the processes of cultural change. Archaeology on the Threshold focuses on major transitions such as the shift from foraging to agriculture, the adoption of new technologies, the emergence of large-scale societies, the transition from egalitarian to inegalitarian leadership, and changes that occur in socioeconomic and ideological systems as a result of climate change and disease. Theoretical approaches range from processual to postprocessual, humanistic, and interpretive. Methodologies include ethnoarchaeology, the use of ethnographic analogy, cross-cultural comparisons and large-scale data approaches, oral history, the historical record, participant observation, and focus group discussions. Challenging archaeologists to query long-held assumptions and theoretical positions, this volume aims to refocus inquiry into change-causing and larger evolutionary processes to problematize notions of revolutionary, irrevocable change. These case studies examine and shed light on assumptions regarding the linearity and oscillations of adaptations, with intriguing implications for archaeological inferences.
Download or read book Time Process and Structured Transformation in Archaeology written by James McGlade and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a discipline which essentially studies how modern man came to be, it is remarkable that there are hardly any conceptual tools to describe change. This is due to the history of the western intellectual and scientific tradition, which for a long time favoured mechanics over dynamics, and the study of stability over that of change. Change was primarily deemed due to external events (in archaeology mainly climatic or 'environmental'). Revolutionary innovations in the natural and life sciences, often (erroneously) referred to as 'chaos theory', suggest that there are ways to overcome this problem. A wide range of processes can be described in terms of dynamic systems, and modern computing methods enable us to investigate many of their properties. This volume presents a cogent argument for the use of such approaches, and a discussion of a number of its aspects by a range of scientists from the humanities, social and natural sciences, and archaeology.
Download or read book Method and Theory in American Archaeology written by Gordon Randolph Willey and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reclaiming Archaeology written by Alfredo González-Ruibal and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology has been an important source of metaphors for some of the key intellectuals of the 20th century: Sigmund Freud, Walter Benjamin, Alois Riegl and Michel Foucault, amongst many others. However, this power has also turned against archaeology, because the discipline has been dealt with perfunctorily as a mere provider of metaphors that other intellectuals have exploited. Scholars from different fields continue to explore areas in which archaeologists have been working for over two centuries, with little or no reference to the discipline. It seems that excavation, stratigraphy or ruins only become important at a trans-disciplinary level when people from outside archaeology pay attention to them and somehow dematerialize them. Meanwhile, archaeologists have been usually more interested in borrowing theories from other fields, rather than in developing the theoretical potential of the same concepts that other thinkers find so useful. The time is ripe for archaeologists to address a wider audience and engage in theoretical debates from a position of equality, not of subalternity. Reclaiming Archaeology explores how archaeology can be useful to rethink modernity’s big issues, and more specifically late modernity (broadly understood as the 20th and 21st centuries). The book contains a series of original essays, not necessarily following the conventional academic rules of archaeological writing or thinking, allowing rhetoric to have its place in disclosing the archaeological. In each of the four sections that constitute this book (method, time, heritage and materiality), the contributors deal with different archaeological tropes, such as excavation, surface/depth, genealogy, ruins, fragments, repressed memories and traces. They criticize their modernist implications and rework them in creative ways, in order to show the power of archaeology not just to understand the past, but also the present. Reclaiming Archaeology includes essays from a diverse array of archaeologists who have dealt in one way or another with modernity, including scholars from non-Anglophone countries who have approached the issue in original ways during recent years, as well as contributors from other fields who engage in a creative dialogue with archaeology and the work of archaeologists.
Download or read book Digital Archaeology written by Thomas Laurence Evans and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors address how digital technologies have been and can be incorporated within different aspects of archaeology and heritage management. They aim to stimulate widespread thought and debate on how IT can be holistically integrated into the study of past cultures.
Download or read book Looking Beneath the Surface written by R. Alan Mounier and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than ten thousand years, humans have lived in New Jersey. From Summit to Cape May, from Trenton to the Jersey Shore, the state is a treasure trove of archaeological artifacts, revealing much about those who occupied the region prior to European settlement. As a rule, only the most durable of human creations3⁄4items of stone and pottery3⁄4survive the ravages of time. To complicate matters, the onslaught of our own culture and the indiscriminate looting of sites by greedy collectors have further diminished the cultural materials left behind. The task of the archaeologist is to gather and interpret these scraps for the benefit of science and the public. But digging up relics is a trivial pursuit if the only outcome is a collection of artifacts, however attractive or valuable they may be. Understanding what those relics mean in human terms is crucial. In Looking beneath the Surface, R. Alan Mounier looks at the human past of New Jersey. With particular focus on the ancient past and native cultures, the author tells the story of archaeology in the state as it has unfolded, and as it continues to unfold. New investigations and discoveries continually change our views and interpretations of the past. In jargon-free language, Mounier provides an in-depth introduction offering information to understand general archaeological practices as well as research in New Jersey. Subsequent chapters describe artifact types, archaeological settlements, and burial practices in detail. He concludes with vignettes of twenty-one archaeological investigations throughout the state to illustrate the variability of sites and the accomplishments of dedicated archaeologists, both professional and amateur.
Download or read book Archaeological Theory written by Matthew Johnson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-09-09 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological Theory, 2nd Edition is the most current and comprehensive introduction to the field available. Thoroughly revised and updated, this engaging text offers students an ideal entry point to the major concepts and ongoing debates in archaeological research. New edition of a popular introductory text that explores the increasing diversity of approaches to archaeological theory Features more extended coverage of 'traditional' or culture-historical archaeology Examines theory across the English-speaking world and beyond Offers greatly expanded coverage of evolutionary theory, divided into sociocultural and Darwinist approaches Includes an expanded glossary, bibliography, and useful suggestions for further readings
Download or read book Archaeology For Dummies written by Nancy Marie White and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-11-17 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An objective guide to this fascinating science of history and culture Archaeology continually makes headlines--from recent discoveries like the frozen Copper-Age man in the Italian Alps to the newest dating of the first people in America at over 14,0000 years ago. Archaeology For Dummies offers a fascinating look at this intriguing field, taking readers on-site and revealing little-known details about some of the world's greatest archaeological discoveries. It explores how archaeology attempts to uncover the lives of our ancestors, examining historical dig sites around the world and explaining theories about ancient human societies. The guide also offers helpful information for readers who want to participate in an excavation themselves, as well as tips for getting the best training and where to look for jobs.
Download or read book Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process written by Dean E. Arnold and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1988-06-16 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A theory of ceramics that elucidates the complex relationship between culture, pottery and society.
Download or read book Archaeology A Very Short Introduction written by Paul Bahn and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-08-30 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining Very Short Introduction reflects the enduring popularity of archaeology - a subject which appeals as a pastime, career, and academic discipline, encompasses the whole globe, and surveys 2.5 million years. From deserts to jungles, from deep caves to mountain tops, from pebble tools to satellite photographs, from excavation to abstract theory, archaeology interacts with nearly every other discipline in its attempts to reconstruct the past. In this new edition, Paul Bahn brings the text up to date, including information about new discoveries and interpretations in the field, and highlighting the impact of developments such as the potential use of DNA and stable isotopes in teeth, as well the effect technology and science are having on archaeological exploration. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Behavioral Archaeology written by Michael B. Schiffer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Behavioral archaeology offers a way of examining the past by highlighting human engagement with the material culture of the time. 'Behavioral Archaeology: Principles and Practice' offers a broad overview of the methods and theories used in this approach to archaeology. Opening with an overview of the history and key concepts, the book goes on to systematically cover both principles and practice: the philosophy of science and the scientific method; artifacts and human behavior; archaeological inference; formation processes of the archaeological record; technological change; behavioral change; and ritual and religion. Detailed case studies show the relevance of behavioral method and theory to the wider field of archaeological studies. The book will be invaluable to students of archaeology and anthropology.
Download or read book Archaeology written by Imma Ollich-Castanyer and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contents of this book show the implementation of new methodologies applied to archaeological sites. Chapters have been grouped in four sections: New Approaches About Archaeological Theory and Methodology; The Use of Geophysics on Archaeological Fieldwork; New Applied Techniques - Improving Material Culture and Experimentation; and Sharing Knowledge - Some Proposals Concerning Heritage and Education. Many different research projects, many different scientists and authors from different countries, many different historical times and periods, but only one objective: working together to increase our knowledge of ancient populations through archaeological work. The proposal of this book is to diffuse new methods and techniques developed by scientists to be used in archaeological works. That is the reason why we have thought that a publication on line is the best way of using new technology for sharing knowledge everywhere. Discovering, sharing knowledge, asking questions about our remote past and origins, are in the basis of humanity, and also are in the basis of archaeology as a science.
Download or read book Confronting Scale in Archaeology written by Gary Lock and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-11-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Without realizing, most archaeologists shift within a scale of interpretation of material culture. Material data is interpreted from the scale of an individual in a specific place and time, then shifted to the complex dynamics of cultural groups spread over time and place. This book discusses the cultural, social and spatial aspects of scale and its impact on archaeology, and shows how an improved awareness of scale offers new and exciting interpretations.
Download or read book Contemporary Archaeology in Theory written by Robert W. Preucel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: The New Pragmatism, has been thoroughly updated and revised, and features top scholars who redefine the theoretical and political agendas of the field, and challenge the usual distinctions between time, space, processes, and people. Defines the relevance of archaeology and the social sciences more generally to the modern world Challenges the traditional boundaries between prehistoric and historical archaeologies Discusses how archaeology articulates such contemporary topics and issues as landscape and natures; agency, meaning and practice; sexuality, embodiment and personhood; race, class, and ethnicity; materiality, memory, and historical silence; colonialism, nationalism, and empire; heritage, patrimony, and social justice; media, museums, and publics Examines the influence of American pragmatism on archaeology Offers 32 new chapters by leading archaeologists and cultural anthropologists
