Title: | Social Theory and Archaeology |
Authors: | Shanks, Michael CHRISTOPHER TILLEY |
Keywords: | Archaeology |
Issue Date: | 1988 |
Publisher: | Polity Press |
Description: | Archaeologists for the first time in the history of the discipline are beginning to be faced with a wide variety of different theoretical perspectives on the past. The majority of these have only emerged during the last seven years and are currently having a major impact in breaking down the theoretical hegemony of positivism and functionalism which formed the twin pillars of ‘new’ archaeology. Despite the growing plethora of theories, archaeology still remains today a deeply empiricist and antitheoretical discipline. Yet it is quite clear that after 150 years of empiricism in one form or another we still have little more than a rudimentary understanding of the archaeological past. No amount of excavation, survey, ethnoarchaeological work or so-called ‘middle-range’ empiricism will cure the perceived fundamental isolation of past from present. This gap can only be dealt with adequately if we develop conceptual tools and theoretical structures with which to reinscribe the past into the present, to realize their interaction. This book is intended as an advanced introduction to some current debates which may help to achieve that goal. |
URI: | http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/51727 |
Appears in Collections: | Archeology and Heritage Management |