Archaeology as Long-Term History

This contributory volume emphasises the archaeological significance of historical method and philosophy.

Ian Hodder (Author)

9780521107860, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 March 2009

160 pages
27.9 x 21 x 0.9 cm, 0.38 kg

In marked contrast with the anthropological and cross-cultural approaches that featured so prominently in archaeological research this contributory volume emphasises the archaeological significance of historical method and philosophy. Drawing particularly on the work of R. G. Collingwood, the contributors show that the notion of 'history seen from within' is a viable approach that can be applied in ethnoarchaeology and in both historic and prehistoric archaeology. There is a discussion of short, medium and long-term historical structures in relation to social events generating observed material culture patterning. Examination of the relationship between structure and event within historical contexts leads to insights into the interdependence of continuity and change, and into the nature of widely recognised processes such as acculturation, diffusion and migration.

Part I. The historical approach in archaeology: 1. The contribution of the long term Ian Hodder
2. Art history, archaeology and idealism: the German tradition James Whitley
Part II. Continuity and change: the very long term: 3. Selective depictions. A study of 3,500 years of rock carvings from Arctic Norway and their relationship to the Sarni drums Knut Helskog
4. Pipes and parakeets: constructing meaning in an Early Iroquoian context Alexander von Gernet and Peter Timmins
Part III. Continuity and change: the past active in the present: 5. Staddle stones and silage-pits: successional use in an agricultural community Jacqueline Nowakowski
6. Reordering residues of the past Paul Lane
7. The perpetual reconstruction of the past Elisabeth Vestergaard
8. Shifting cultivation in the Raimahal Hills of India Ajay Pratap
Part IV. Acculturation, diffusion and migration as social-symbolic processes: 9. Problems in the analysis of social change: an example from the Marakwet Henrietta Moore
10. A contribution to the study of migrations in the archaeological record: the Ngom and Kololo migrations as a case study David Collett
11. Gothic material culture Kevin Greene.

Subject Areas: Archaeology [HD]