Download or read book Essential Tensions in Archaeological Method and Theory written by Todd L. VanPool and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeological theory, some say, seems to have fragmented into a thousand fundamentalisms. By working on a broader set of empirical issues than ever before, archaeologists are indeed applying and refining a variety of perspectives. Yet the editors of this volume make a case that it is appropriate for archaeologists to use a logical variety of theoretical structures to answer different kinds of questions, combining approaches as necessary. In that spirit of plurality, contributors to this volume identify an important theoretical or methodological problem and present an argument regarding its solution. They also provide a critical evaluation of the current state of archaeological method and theory, illustrating that such recurrent issues as the role of agency and the importance of social considerations in the formation of archaeological research dominate current theoretical development. By presenting both the range of important questions and a variety of answers, this volume contributes to the 'essential tension' that will further the growth of archaeological theory.

Download or read book Contradictions of Archaeological Theory written by Sandra Wallace and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-01-30 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is current archaeological theory stuck at an impasse? Sandra Wallace argues that archaeological theory has become mired as a result of logical and ontological contradictions. By showing that these contradictions are a result of common underlying philosophical assumptions and fallacies this book is able to show how a fresh approach to this discipline is necessary to resolve them, even if this requires re-examining some of the tenants of orthodox archaeology. This fresh approach is achieved by using Critical Realism as an "under labourer" to philosophically evaluate archaeological theory. Starting by assessing the historical impact of philosophy on the discipline and then looking at the current relationship between archaeology and the ontology of the material this book facilitates the construction of discipline specific theory by archaeologists. The result is an approach to archaeology that allows both students and practitioners to free themselves from endemic contradictions and re-discover their approach to archaeological theory.

Download or read book Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies written by Ethan Cochrane and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-16 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of original articles compares various key archaeological topics—agency, violence, social groups, diffusion—from evolutionary and interpretive perspectives. These two strands represent the major current theoretical poles in the discipline. By comparing and contrasting the insights they provide into major archaeological themes, this volume demonstrates the importance of theoretical frameworks in archaeological interpretations. Chapter authors discuss relevant Darwinian or interpretive theory with short archaeological and anthropological case studies to illustrate the substantive conclusions produced. The book will advance debate and contribute to a better understanding of the goals and research strategies that comprise these distinct research traditions.

Download or read book Evolution Development and Complexity written by Georgi Yordanov Georgiev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the universe and its subsystems from the three lenses of evolutionary (contingent), developmental (predictable), and complex (adaptive) processes at all scales. It draws from prolific experts within the academic disciplines of complexity science, physical science, information and computer science, theoretical and evo-devo biology, cosmology, astrobiology, evolutionary theory, developmental theory, and philosophy. The chapters come from a Satellite Meeting, "Evolution, Development and Complexity" (EDC) hosted at the Conference on Complex Systems, in Cancun, 2017. The contributions have been peer-reviewed and contributors from outside the conference were invited to submit chapters to ensure full coverage of the topics. This book explores many issues within the field of EDC such as the interaction of evolutionary stochasticity and developmental determinism in biological systems and what they might teach us about these twin processes in other complex systems. This text will appeal to students and researchers within the complex systems and EDC fields.

Download or read book The Archaeology of Native Lived Colonialism written by Neal Ferris and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In reconsidering Native adaptation and resistance to colonial British rule, Ferris reviews five centuries of interaction that are usually read as a single event viewed through the lens of historical bias. He first examines patterns of traditional lifeway continuity among the Ojibwa, demonstrating their ability to maintain seasonal mobility up to the mid-nineteenth century and their adaptive response to its loss. He then looks at the experience of refugee Delawares, who settled among the Ojibwa as a missionary-sponsored community yet managed to maintain an identity distinct from missionary influences. And he shows how the archaeological history of the Six Nations Iroquois reflected patterns of negotiating emergent colonialism when they returned to the region in the 1780s, exploring how families managed tradition and the contemporary colonial world to develop innovative ways of revising and maintaining identity.

Download or read book Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology written by Amy Gansell and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-06 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology invites readers to reconsider the contents and agendas of the art historical and world-culture canons by looking at one of their most historically enduring components: the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East. Ann Shafer, Amy Rebecca Gansell, and other top researchers in the field examine and critique the formation and historical transformation of the ancient Near Eastern canon of art, architecture, and material culture. Contributors flesh out the current boundaries of regional and typological sub-canons, analyze the technologies of canon production (such as museum practices and classroom pedagogies), and voice first-hand heritage perspectives. Each chapter, thereby, critically engages with the historiography behind our approach to the Near East and proposes alternative constructs. Collectively, the essays confront and critique the ancient Near Eastern canon's present configuration and re-imagine its future role in the canon of world art as a whole. This expansive collection of essays covers the Near East's many regions, eras, and types of visual and archaeological materials, offering specific and actionable proposals for its study. Testing the Canon of Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology stands as a vital benchmark and offers a collective path forward for the study and appreciation of Near Eastern cultural heritage. This book acts as a model for similar inquiries across global art historical and archaeological fields and disciplines.

Download or read book Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest written by Robert J. Stokes and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest presents new research on human organization in the American Southwest, examining families, households, and communities in the Ancestral Puebloan, Mogollon, and Hohokam major cultural areas, as well as the Fremont, Jornada Mogollon, and Lipan Apache areas, from the time of earliest habitation to the twenty-first century. Using historical data, dialectic approaches, problem-oriented and data-driven analysis, and ethnographic and gender studies methodologies, the contributors offer diverse interpretations of what constitutes a site, village, and community; how families and households organized their domestic space; and how this organization has influenced researchers’ interpretations of spatially derived archaeological data. Today’s archaeologists and anthropologists understand that communities operate as a multi-level, -organizational, -contextual, and -referential human creation, which informs their understanding of how people actively negotiate their way through and around community constraints. The chapters in this book creatively examine these interactions, revealing the dynamic nature of ancient and modern groups in the American Southwest. The book has two broad complementary themes: one focusing on household decision-making, identity, and structural relations with the greater community; the other concerned with community organization and integration, household roles within the community, and changes in community organization—violence and destabilization, coalescence and cooperation—over time. Communities and Households in the Greater American Southwest weaves a rich tapestry of ancient and modern life through innovative approaches that will be of interest not only to Southwestern archaeologists but to all researchers and students interested in social organization at the household and community levels. Contributors: James R. Allison, Andrew Duff, Lindsay Johansson, Michael Lindeman, Myles Miller, James Potter, Alison E. Rautman, J. Jefferson Reid, Katie Richards, Oscar Rodriguez, Barbara Roth, Kristin Safi, Deni Seymour, Robert J. Stokes, Richard K. Talbot, Scott Ure, Henry Wallace, Stephanie M. Whittlesey

Download or read book Theory Of Knowledge Structures And Processes written by Mark Burgin and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2016-10-27 with total page 965 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book aims to synthesize different directions in knowledge studies into a unified theory of knowledge and knowledge processes. It explicates important relations between knowledge and information. It provides the readers with understanding of the essence and structure of knowledge, explicating operations and process that are based on knowledge and vital for society.The book also highlights how the theory of knowledge paves the way for more advanced design and utilization of computers and networks.

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

Download or read book Cross Cultural Psychology written by Krum Krumov and published by IAP. This book was released on 2013-04-01 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cross-Cultural Psychology: Why Culture Matters addresses both established and very recent research in cultural and comparative cross-cultural psychology. The book is written by Professor Krum Krumov of Sofia University in Bulgaria and Professor Knud S. Larsen from Oregon State University. The authors are long-term colleagues with extensive research experience in cultural, cross-cultural and international settings. The book starts with a discussion of the tentative nature of cultural information given the forces of globalization and communication integration. Weighing these issues still permits for some powerful conclusions about differences that matter as well as human universals based on our communalities. The reader is also provided with a through grounding in relevant research approaches and critical thinking that provides the basis for an evaluation of the research literature. Further, the book reports on what we know about the origin of culture, especially the forces of cultural transmission and the evidence for socio-cultural evolution. The impact of culture and psychology on human development is contrasted and evaluated. A chapter on language stresses the importance of evolutionary forces and the relationship to socio-culture. In turn that discussion sets the stage for reporting the relevant research on cognition that yields information on the impact of genetics, but also the affect of cultural evolution. A distinct contribution is the evaluation of human happiness and emotions. The book demonstrates tangible relationships to both the universal expressions of emotions, but also the impact of cultural values on well-being. A consideration of personality theory follows in the systematic and progressive discourse in the book. Research is reported on Western, Eastern and Indigenous conceptualizations and research approaches. The discussion on the self is considered next and the authors evaluate cultural, social and comparative cross-cultural dimensions. Finally, a discussion of sex and gender follows as associated with salient cross-cultural dimensions. The book concludes with a discussion of the affect of cultural values in organizational behavior and a consideration of the relationship between culture and human health.

Download or read book BELIEF IN THE PAST written by David S Whitley and published by Left Coast Press. This book was released on 2008-07-15 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human actions are often deeply intertwined with religion and can be understood in a strictly religious context. Yet, many volumes and articles pertaining to discussions of religion in the archaeological past have focused primarily on the sociopolitical implications of such remains. The authors in this volume argue that while these interpretations certainly have a meaningful place in understanding the human past, they provide only part of the picture. Because strictly religious contexts have often been ignored, this has resulted in an incomplete assessment of religious behavior in the past. This volume considers exciting new directions for considering an archaeology of religion, offering examples from theory, tangible archaeological remains, and ethnography.

Download or read book Archaeology of Domestic Architecture and the Human Use of Space written by Sharon R Steadman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first text to focus specifically on the archaeology of domestic architecture. Covering major theoretical and methodological developments over recent decades in areas like social institutions, settlement types, gender, status, and power, this book addresses the developing understanding of where and how people in the past created and used domestic space. It will be a useful synthesis for scholars and an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in archaeology and architecture. The book-covers the relationship of architectural decisions of ancient peoples with our understanding of social and cultural institutions;-includes cases from every continent and all time periods-- from the Paleolithic of Europe to present-day African villages;-is ideal for the growing number of courses on household archaeology, social archaeology, and historical and vernacular architecture.

Download or read book Human Expeditions written by Andre Costopoulos and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human Expeditions pays tribute to Trigger's immense legacy by bringing together cutting edge work from internationally recognized and emerging researchers inspired by his example.

Download or read book Innovation in Cultural Systems written by Michael John O'Brien and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leading scholars offer a range of perspectives on the roles played by innovation in the evolution of human culture. In recent years an interest in applying the principles of evolution to the study of culture emerged in the social sciences. Archaeologists and anthropologists reconsidered the role of innovation in particular, and have moved toward characterizing innovation in cultural systems not only as a product but also as an evolutionary process. This distinction was familiar to biology but new to the social sciences; cultural evolutionists from the nineteenth to the twentieth century had tended to see innovation as a preprogrammed change that occurred when a cultural group "needed" to overcome environmental problems. In this volume, leading researchers from a variety of disciplines--including anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and psychology--offer their perspectives on cultural innovation. The book provides not only a range of views but also an integrated account, with the chapters offering an orderly progression of thought. The contributors consider innovation in biological terms, discussing epistemology, animal studies, systematics and phylogeny, phenotypic plasticity and evolvability, and evo-devo; they discuss modern insights into innovation, including simulation, the random-copying model, diffusion, and demographic analysis; and they offer case studies of innovation from archaeological and ethnographic records, examining developmental, behavioral, and social patterns. Contributors André Ariew, R. Alexander Bentley, Werner Callebaut, Joseph Henrich, Anne Kandler, Kevin N. Laland, Daniel O. Larson, Alex Mesoudi, Michael J. O'Brien, Craig T. Palmer, Adam Powell, Simon M. Reader, Valentine Roux, Chet Savage, Michael Brian Schiffer, Jeffrey H. Schwartz, Stephen J. Shennan, James Steele, Mark G. Thomas, Todd L. VanPool

Download or read book Archaeology Matters written by Jeremy A Sabloff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology is perceived to study the people of long ago and far away. How could archaeology matter in the modern world? Well-known archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff points to ways in which archaeology might be important to the understanding and amelioration of contemporary problems. Though archaeologists have commonly been associated with efforts to uncover cultural identity, to restore the past of underrepresented peoples, and to preserve historical sites, their knowledge and skills can be used in many other ways. Archaeologists help Peruvian farmers increase crop yields, aid city planners in reducing landfills, and guide local communities in tourism development and water management. This brief volume, aimed at students and other prospective archaeologists, challenges the field to go beyond merely understanding the past and actively engage in making a difference in the today’s world.

Download or read book Archaeology and Capitalism written by Yannis Hamilakis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-03 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors and contributors to this volume focus on the inherent political nature of archaeology and its impact on the practice of the discipline. Pointing to the discipline’s history of advancing imperialist, colonialist, and racist objectives, they insist that archaeology must rethink its muted professional stance and become more overtly active agents of change. The discipline is not about an abstract “archaeological record” but about living individuals and communities, whose lives and heritage suffer from the abuse of power relationships with states and their agents. Only by recognizing this power disparity, and adopting a political ethic for the discipline, can archaeology justify its activities. Chapters range from a critique of traditional ethical codes, to examinations of the capitalist motivations and structures within the discipline, to calls for an engaged, emancipatory archaeology that improves the lives of the people with whom archaeologists work. A direct challenge to the discipline, this volume will provoke discussion, disagreement, and inspiration for many in the field.

Download or read book Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory written by Michael B Schiffer and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2014-06-30 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, Volume 3 presents the progressive explorations in methods and theory in archeology. This book discusses the general cultural significance of cult archeology. Organized into nine chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the spectrum of professional reactions to cult archeology. This text then examines the applicability of evolutionary theory to archeology. Other chapters consider the fundamental principles of adaptation as applied to human behavior and review the state of application of adaptational approaches in archeology. This book discusses as well the convergence of evolutionary and ecological perspectives in anthropology that has given rise to a distinct concept of culture. The final chapter deals with obsidian dating as a chronometric method and explains the problems that limit its effectiveness. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists and anthropologists. Graduate students and archeology students will also find this book extremely useful.