7/27/2019 Ant 104 Lecture 15 Introduction to Archaeology

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Post-Processual Archaeology

Ian Hodder's Critique1.

Interpretive Archaeology2.Agenda Archaeology3.

Physical constraints on such behaviors: can't build a city in the middle of adesert without water, can't subsist solely on a rare food resource, etc

Said that Processulism was very good with basic areas of human behavior, such assettlement patterns, subsistence and technology

Less constraint on such behaviors: which side of the road to drive on

Difficult to come up with rules for such things, but you must try, according toHodder

Processualism was bad with more complex areas, such as symbolism and politics

Looking for objects that were presumably sensitive to cultural variation,such as jewelry, weapons, tools

Was more difficult than expected, finding variation of some objects withinthe same region, and consistency of other objects across many regions

Looking for archaeological evidence that corresponds with the historical recordof which tribes/chiefdoms were where (Roman tax records)

Meanings of symbols can be ambiguous, even to those who use them

Interpretations of political behavior can be highly subjective (dependentupon the observer)

These aspects of human behavior are intrinsically variableThe rules with which you interpret these symbols cannot come directlyfrom the past

Investigated variations in such material culture in Lake Baringo, Kenya

Becomes difficult for archaeologists to disentangleIf people move a lot, such boundaries degrade

With investigations of deep time, where the measurements arein thousands of years, it is structurally impossible to observe

With more recent periods, it is observable

The ability to observe this varies according to time scale

Variability can delineate between groups, as well is within groups

The choice of objects (such as style and type of pottery vessel) variesaccording to how close the subject lives to boundary areas betweengroups

Mother goddess?Fertility figurine?Pornography?Child's toy?Who's to say and how's it known?

An example: the "Venus" figurines

Actualistic research by Hodder and others suggested that there was greatdifficulty in dealing with symbols and politics

Developed this perspective while working on Iron Age settlement patterns in GreatBritain

Ian Hodder made the most substantive critique

After Processual Archaeology grew in popularity in the 1960s, there was growing criticism of itsshortcomings by the 1980s

Lecture 15Monday, September 30, 2013

11:01 AM

Intro to Archaeolo ANT104 Pa e 1