"Archaeological theory refers to the various intellectual frameworks through which archaeologists interpret archaeological data."
The theoretical approaches used to interpret and understand archaeological evidence.
Historical Development of Archaeology: This topic involves studying the evolution of archaeology as a discipline, including its historical roots and major trends throughout history.
Culture History: Culture history is the study of past societies or cultures through their material remains. It is a seminal foundation of archaeology and involves identifying and interpreting artifacts, structures, and other physical features.
Processual Archaeology: Processual archaeology is a theoretical approach to archaeology that emerged in the 1960s and focuses on understanding the cultural processes that lead to the creation of the archaeological record.
Post-Processual Archaeology: Post-processual archaeology emerged as a response to processual archaeology in the 1980s and emphasizes the social and cultural contexts of past societies, as well as their subjective experiences.
Marxist Archaeology: Marxist archaeology is a theoretical approach that uses Marxist thought to analyze the relationship between material culture and social systems.
Feminist Archaeology: Feminist archaeology is an approach that applies feminist theory to archaeological interpretation, attempting to recognize the role of women in the past and understand social inequalities in the archaeological record.
Cognitive Archaeology: Cognitive archaeology is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the relationships between the human mind and material culture in both the past and present.
Postcolonial Archaeology: Postcolonial archaeology is a theoretical approach to archaeology that explores the impact of colonialism and other forms of imperialism on archaeology and the interpretation of the past.
Landscape Archaeology: Landscape archaeology is the study of past human activity across larger geographical areas, including its relationship with the physical environment.
Experimental Archaeology: Experimental archaeology involves the reconstruction and experimental replication of past technologies, structures, and other material culture to better understand how objects and places were created and used.
Heritage Management: Heritage management is the practice of managing cultural heritage resources such as archaeological sites and artifacts, with the goal of preserving them for future generations.
Ethnoarchaeology: Ethnoarchaeology is the study of living societies and their material culture to understand how they relate to the archaeological record.
GIS and Remote Sensing: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing are two technologies used by archaeologists to map and analyze archaeological sites and landscapes, including the use of satellite imagery and aerial photography.
Zooarchaeology: Zooarchaeology is the study of animal remains found in archaeological sites, including their use by past societies for food, clothing, and other purposes.
Bioarchaeology: Bioarchaeology is the study of human remains found in archaeological sites, including their physical characteristics, diseases, and social status.
Processual Archaeology: This theory emphasizes the use of scientific methods and data analysis to reconstruct past cultures and societies. It focuses on understanding the processes that led to cultural change and explains how human behavior influences the environment.
Post-processual Archaeology: This theory emphasizes the subjective, interpretive and symbolic aspects of human cultural history. Post-processual archaeologists emphasize more on the cultural meaning than the objective reality of archaeological finds.
Marxist Archaeology: This theory views archaeology as a critical component of global socio-economic relations. It explores the underlying social, economic, and political structures that influenced the development of past societies.
Feminist Archaeology: This theory emphasizes the role of gender in shaping past societies. Feminist archaeologists consider the gendered power dynamics that influenced the development of society, economy, and politics.
Cognitive Archaeology: This theory explores how people think and use mental processes in the past. It examines how people internalized beliefs and values through material culture.
Interpretive Archaeology: This theory emphasizes the creation of meaning in the past and how this meaning is interpreted in the present. It examines how we engage with the past from a contemporary perspective.
Human Behavioral Ecology: This theory views human behavior as a result of environmental and ecological factors. It emphasizes the importance of scientific data collection to understand the social and ecological aspects of human evolution.
Evolutionary Archaeology: This theory explores the evolution of human behavior and cultural change over time, emphasizing factors such as genetics, adaptation, and the emergence of complex societies and social structures.
Historical Archaeology: This theory focuses on the period since the emergence of written records. It seeks to understand the interactions between different cultures and societies in the past.
Agency Theory: This theory emphasizes the idea that individuals and groups exercise power and control over their own cultural identities, rather than being solely influenced by external social forces. Agency theory accounts for the freedom of individuals to make choices and decisions influencing themselves and society.
"Archaeological theory functions as the application of philosophy of science to archaeology, and is occasionally referred to as philosophy of archaeology."
"There is no one singular theory of archaeology, but many, with different archaeologists believing that information should be interpreted in different ways."
"Throughout the history of the discipline, various trends of support for certain archaeological theories have emerged, peaked, and in some cases died out."
"Different archaeological theories differ on what the goals of the discipline are and how they can be achieved."
"Some archaeological theories, such as processual archaeology, hold that archaeologists are able to develop accurate, objective information about past societies by applying the scientific method to their investigations."
"Post-processual archaeology disputes this, and claims all archaeological data is tainted by human interpretation and social factors, and any interpretation they make about past societies is therefore subjective."
"Other archaeological theories, such as Marxist archaeology, interpret archaeological evidence within a framework for how its proponents believe society operates."
"Marxist archaeologists in general believe that the bipolarism that exists between the processual and post-processual debates is an opposition inherent within knowledge production and is in accord with a dialectical understanding of the world."
"Many Marxist archaeologists believe that it is this polarism within the anthropological discipline (and all academic disciplines) that fuels the questions that spur progress in archaeological theory and knowledge."
"This constant interfacing and conflict between the extremes of the two heuristic playing grounds (subjective vs. objective) is believed to result in a continuous reconstruction of the past by scholars."