Theoretical Positions in Contemporary Archaeology
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Essay #: 059669
Total text length is 5,246 characters
(approximately 3.6 pages).
Excerpts from the Paper
The beginning:
Theoretical Positions in Contemporary Archaeology
The two most important theoretical positions reflected in contemporary archaeology are processual and post processual archaeology. Processual archaeology attempts to use the scientific method rigorously to deduce information about how items from the archaeological record were originally used. Post processual archaeology is largely a critique of the processual method, juxtaposing different methods of analysis, including feminist, cognitive, and contextual archaeology.
Processual archaeology used to be called the New Archaeology, which used specialists from other fields such as botany and chemistry to study ecosystems and natural environments. They wanted to get past just offering a set of...
The end:
.....o clear timeline for when these two styles of archaeology will meld completely, there is no reason why they would not already be parts of the same puzzle in many archaeological scenarios, where the data is incomplete or in pieces. Eventually it is probably inevitable that these two approaches will become seamlessly unified, creating a science with a broader view, and more ways to see into the past.
Bibliography
Bapty, Ian. Yates, Tim.
1990 Archaeology after structuralism. London, Routledge.
Search.com
2010 Post-processual archaeology. Referenced 20 April 2010.
http://www.search.com/reference/Post-processual_archaeology
Knowledgerush.com
2010 Processualism. Referenced 20 April 2010.
http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Processualism/