Global Archaeological Theory

by Funari, Pedro Paulo A.; Zarankin, Andres; Stovel, Emily

• ISBN13: 9780306486517
• ISBN10: 0306486512
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Plenum Pub Corp

Summary

Archaeological theory has gone through a great upheaval in the last 50 years '¬" from the processual theory, which wanted to make archaeology more "scientific" to post-processual theory, which understands that interpreting human behavior (even of past cultures) is a subjective study. This subjective approach incorporates a plurality of readings, thereby implying that different interpretations are always possible, allowing us to modify and change our ideas under the light of new information and/or interpretive frameworks. In this way, interpretations form a continuous flow of transformation and change, and thus archaeologists do not uncover a real past but rather construct a historical past or a narrative of the past. Post-processual theory also incorporates a conscious and explicit political interest on the past of the scholar and the subject. This includes fields and topics such as gender issues, ethnicity, class, landscapes, and consumption. This reflects a conscious attempt to also decentralize the discipline, from an imperialist point of view to an empowering one. Method and theory also means being politically aware and engaged to incorporate diverse critical approaches to improve understanding of the past and the present. This book focuses on the fundamental theoretical issues found in the discipline and thus both engages and represents the very rich plurality of the post-processual approach to archaeology. The book is divided into four sections: Issues in Archaeological Theory, Archaeological Theory and Method in Action, Space and Power in Material Culture, and Images as Material Discourse.

Table of Contents

I. Archaeological Theory
Global Archaeological Theory: Introduction	1	(10)
Pedro Paulo A. Funari
Andres Zarankin
Emily Stovel
Materiality and the Social	11	(8)
Julian Thomas
Archaeology and the Meanings of Material Culture	19	(10)
Norberto Luiz Guarinello
Why Is There Material Culture Rather than Nothing? Heideggerian Thoughts and Archaeology	29	(14)
Hakan Karlsson
What Conditions of Existence Sustain a Tension Found in the Use of Written and Material Documents in Archaeology?	43	(16)
Jose Alberione dos Reis
The Reception of New Archaeology in Argentina: A Preliminary Survey	59	(18)
Irina Podgomy
Maria Dolores Tobias
Maximo Farro
II. Archaeological Theory and Methods in Action
Network Theory and the Archaeology of Modern History	77	(20)
Charles E. Orser Jr.
The Comparative Method in Archaeology and the Study of Spanish and Portuguese South American Material Culture	97	(10)
Pedro Paulo A. Funari
Bodies in Prehistory: Beyond the Sex/Gender Split	107	(14)
Benjamin Alberti
Children's Activity in the Production of the Archaeological Record of Hunter-Gatherers: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach	121	(24)
Gustavo G. Politis
The Archaeology of Identity Construction: Ceramic Evidence from Northern Chile	145	(22)
Emily M. Stovel
Rethinking Stereotypes and the History of Research on Je Populations in South Brazil: An Interdisciplinary Point of View	167	(24)
Francisco Silva Noelli
III. Space and Power in Material Culture
Traveling Objects and Spatial Images: Exchange Relationships and the Production of Social Space	191	(20)
Marisa Lazzari
The Materiality of Inka Domination: Landscape, Spectacle, Memory, and Ancestors	211	(26)
Felix A. Acuto
Walls of Domestication---Archaeology of the Architecture of Capitalist Elementary Public Schools: The Case of Buenos Aires	237	(28)
Andres Zarankin
Enlightened Discourses, Representations, and Social Practices in the Spanish Settlement of Floridablanca, Patagonia 18th Century	265	(18)
Maria Ximena Senatore
IV. Images as Material Discourse
Stylistic Units in Prehistoric Art Research: Archeofacts or Realities?	283	(14)
Andre Prous
Water and Olive Oil: An Analysis of Rural Scenes in Black and Red Figure Attic Vases and the Construction of the Athenian Empire	297	(12)
Andre Leonardo Chevitarese
V. The Construction of Archaeological Discourse
Between Motorcycles and Rifles: Anglo-American and Latin American Radical Archaeologies	309	(28)
Randall H. McGuire
Rodrigo Navarrete
Footsteps of the American Race: Archaeology, Ethnography, and Romantism in Imperial Brazil (1838--1867)	337	(16)
Lucio Menezes Ferreira
Brazilian Archaeology: Indigenous Identity in the Early Decades of the Twentieth Century	353	(12)
Ana Cristina Pinon Sequeira
Discussion: A Response from the `Core'	365	(6)
Matthew H. Johnson
Index	371