Re-constructing Archaeology: Theory and Practice

Citation preview

Re-Constructing

Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley

Re-Constructing Archaeology

How should we view the archaeological past? How can we come to understand it and what procedures are suitable for constructing archaeological knowledge? What indeed is the purpose of archaeology? Re-Constructing Archaeology tackles all these issues with wit and vigour. It aims to challenge the disciplinary practices of both traditional and 'new' archaeology and to present a radical alternative - a critically self-conscious archaeology aware of itself as practice in the present, and equally a social archaeology that appreciates artifacts not merely as objects of analysis but as part of a social world of past and present that is charged with meaning. Re-Constructing Archaeology ranges widely across the social and philosophical literature, from philosophy of science to hermeneutics, structuralism and post-structuralism and Marxism. But its concerns are not simply theoretical. The book is fundamentally concerned with overcoming the split between theoretical argument and practical research, be it excavation, artifact analysis or the relationship between professional archaeologists and the public. When Re-Constructing Archaeology was first published, it provoked a storm of controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. The second edition is brought up to date with a new preface and appendix, in which Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley extend their arguments and answer their most vocal critics. It will be essential reading for students of archaeology. Michael Shanks is the author of Experiencing the Past: On the Character of Archaeology (1992). Christopher Tilley, Lecturer in Archaeology at St David's University College, University of Wales, is the author of Material Culture and Text: The Art of Ambiguity (1991). He has recently edited Reading Material Culture (1990) and Interpretative Archaeology (1992). Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley have also co-authored Social Theory and Archaeology (1987).

MICHAEL SHANKS and CHRISTOPHER

TILLEY

Re-Constructing Archaeology

Theory and Practice

SECOND EDITION

3

LONDON and NEW YORK

Far ELIZABETH and KARIN

CONTENTS

List of illustrations xi Figures xi Tables xii Acknowledgements xiii Foreword by Ian Hodder xv Preface to the second edition xvii Introduction 1

PART

I

ISSUES IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CRITIQUE AND DEVELOPMENT

1

The present past 7 Introduction 7 The problematic past 8 Time travel: getting from the present back to the past Recreating the past 15 Archaeology - history 16 The practice of archaeology 22 Justifications 25 Conclusions 21

2

3

THEORY AND PRACTICE: 5

9

Positivism and the 'new archaeology' 29 Introduction 29 The new paradigm - or traditional archaeology resurrected? Grounding knowledge claims: positivism 32 Naturalism 34 Phenomenalism and the demarcation of science/non-science Conclusion 43

29

36

Facts and values in archaeology 46 Introduction 46 An objective and scientific archaeology: rational method and therapy 46 Reification and empirical regularity 48 Manipulating the past as image of the present: economic archaeology 49 Systems theory, the status quo and pathology 52 Cultural evolution, the politicization of time 53 vii

Contents Evolution: biology and behaviour 54 Statistics, mathematics and objectivity 56 Mathematical archaeology 57 Reason as method: a logistical archaeology 59 Justifications and the meaning of archaeology 62 Facts and values, ideology and criticism 62 The lament of High Culture 63 The valuable past 64 Conclusions: notes towards a critical archaeology 65 4

Presenting the past: towards a redemptive aesthetic for the museum Introduction 68 PART ONE: THE MUSEUMS

69

The artifact transformed into an object in commodified time 69 The Museum of Antiquities of the University and Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne 69 The aesthetic artifact 11 'The British Museum 71 Bringing the past alive 73 Narrative display and the artifact as information 74 The Museum of London 74 Presence, absence and the authenticating quote 74 The exhibited past 76 A period room in the Castle Museum, York 76 The erotics of the museum 79 'The George Joicey Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne 80 Shop-front commodification 81 The Castle Museum, York 81 Heritage: visiting a mythical past 83 The North of England Open Air Museum. Beamish, County Durham 83 Labour and discovery: the archaeologist as hero 86 Jorvik Viking Centre, York 86 PART TWO: PAST AND PRESENT IN THE MUSEUM

90

Entertaining the public: 'real' and 'popular' archaeology Archaeologists as creatures of their times 93 Mediating past and present 94 Conclusion: towards a redemptive aesthetic 97 PART II 5

91

PERSPECTIVES FOR A SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY Hermeneutics, dialectics and archaeology Archaeology as interpretation 103 The hermeneutic circle 104 The role of the interpreter 105

103

101

68

Contents

ix

Archaeology as fourfold hermeneutic 107 Thought as embedded in historical process 108 Beyond hermeneutics, towards dialectics 110 Explanation 112 Knowledge 113 Conclusions 114 6

Social archaeology: the object of study 116 Introduction 116 Artifact, culture, system 117 Against essentialism: social system as relational whole 119 Agency and social practices 722 A stratified model of agency 125 Structures, structuring principles 126 Structuration 128 Contradiction, power, ideology, change 129 Material culture: objectification and social strategies 130 Meaning in material culture 131 Conclusions 134

PART III MATERIAL CULTURE AND SOCIAL PRACTICES 135 1 Style and ideology 137 Introduction 137 How archaeologists have dealt with style 138 An alternative perspective 146 Style: a summary 755 Style as ideology in southern Swedish middle neolithic ceramics Summary 777

755

8 Social values, social constraints and material culture: the design of contemporary beer cans 7 72 Introduction 772 THE DESIGNS ON BRITISH AND SWEDISH BEER CANS

773

Differences between British and Swedish beer can designs Differences between British beer and lager cans 780 Differences between Swedish beer classes 183 DRINK, THE STATE, CONSUMERISM, DISCIPLINE

175

186

Early industrial capitalism and alcohol production 186 Changes in experience of work and leisure 189 Drink, social control and disciplinary power 190 Consumerism, the welfare state and the medicalization of drinking practices The brewing industry 207

198

Contents

ALCOHOL IN THE MEDIA AND ADVERTISING

209

Drink and the news 209 Advertisements 214 TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE DESIGN OF BEER CANS

PART IV 9

CONCLUSIONS

241

Archaeological theory and practice today Appendix: Archaeology into the 1990s References Index

285

267

247

243

236

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures 1.1 Some justifications for archaeology 2.1 Appearance and interpretation

37

4.1 The aesthetic artifact 72 4.2 The period room rediscovered 4.3 Beamish valley 83

78

4.4 The past brought back to life

26

87

5.1 Stages in theoretical appropriation

112

6.1 The social totality 127 7.1 The location of the passage grave Fjalkinge No. 9 156 7.2 The passage grave Fjalkinge No. 9 757 7.3 Pots from the four temporal phases at Fjalkinge No. 9 158 7.4 A hierarchical classification system for the designs on Swedish TRB ceramics 759 7.5 Design sequences on two pots from Fjalkinge No. 9 160 7.6 The percentage of vessels possessing bounded designs and the percentage of bounded designs on vessels for the four temporal phases at Fjalkinge No. 9 164 7.7 Plan of Fjalkinge No. 9 showing the excavated area and six analytical space regions 765 7.8 The distribution of potsherds at the entrance to Fjalkinge No. 9 166 7.9 The number of potsherds for 1 metre bands right to left and front to back at the entrance to FjalkingeNo. 9 767 7.10 The changing relative frequencies of vessels found in the analytical space regions outside FjalkingeNo. 9 168 7.11 The frequency of oblique infill for each of the primary bounded forms of the classification system 169 8.1 The variables recorded for each beer can 7 75 8.2 The frequency of words, representational and abstract designs on British and Swedish beer cans /77 8.3 Writing on Swedish and British beer cans 777 8.4 Contrasts between British and Swedish beer cans 178 8.5 Principal components and principal coordinates analyses of British and Swedish beer cans 7