Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
CL Witmore (2015)
Allegory of the cave painting
R. Gould, M. Schiffer (1981)
Modern Material Culture the Archaeology of Us
A Wylie (2002)
Thinking from things: essays in the philosophy of archaeology
T. Sørensen (2016)
In Praise of Vagueness: Uncertainty, Ambiguity and Archaeological MethodologyJournal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 23
A. Megill, S. Shepard, Phillip Honenberger (2007)
Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice
B. Latour (1991)
We Have Never Been Modern
(2013)
Dirty, pretty things: on archaeology and prehistoric materialities
L. Binford (1981)
Behavioral Archaeology and the "Pompeii Premise"Journal of Anthropological Research, 37
(2015)
No past but within things
Rodney Harrison (2011)
Surface assemblages. Towards an archaeology in and of the presentArchaeological Dialogues, 18
J Law (2009)
The new Blackwell companion to social theory
(1975)
Sources of bias in processual data: an appraisal
Alain Schnapp (2002)
Between antiquarians and archaeologists — continuities and rupturesAntiquity, 76
D. Lacapra (1999)
Trauma, Absence, LossCritical Inquiry, 25
T. Murray, Michael Walker (1988)
Like WHAT? A practical question of analogical inference and archaeological meaningfulnessJournal of Anthropological Archaeology, 7
Michael Walker (2023)
The Explanation of Culture Change: Models in Prehistory ed. by Colin Renfrew (review)Technology and Culture, 17
Bjørnar Olsen (2010)
In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects
J. Law (2009)
Actor-network theory and material semiotics
B Brown (2001)
Thing theoryCritical Inquiry, 28
M. Schiffer (1985)
Is There a "Pompeii Premise" in Archaeology?Journal of Anthropological Research, 41
J. Bintliff, M. Pearce (2011)
The Death of Archaeological Theory
M. Schiffer (1972)
Archaeological Context and Systemic ContextAmerican Antiquity, 37
C Goodwin (1994)
Professional visionAmerican Anthropologist, 96
A. Megill (1989)
Recounting the Past: “Description,” Explanation, and Narrative in HistoriographyThe American Historical Review, 94
I. Hodder (2012)
Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships Between Humans and Things
M. Shanks (2007)
Symmetrical archaeologyWorld Archaeology, 39
A. Badcock, Robert Johnston (2009)
Placemaking Through Protest: An Archaeology of the Lees Cross and Endcliffe Protest Camp, Derbyshire, EnglandArchaeologies, 5
Matthew Johnson (2006)
On the nature of theoretical archaeology and archaeological theoryArchaeological Dialogues, 13
W. Rathje (1981)
Modern Material Culture Studies
(1958)
Personal knowledge: towards a post-critical theory
G. Harman (2010)
I am Also of the Opinion That Materialism Must Be DestroyedEnvironment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28
N. Thrift (2007)
Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect
J. Gerring (2012)
Mere Description
C. Geertz (1975)
The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays
V Buchli, G Lucas (2001)
Archaeologies of the contemporary past
Timothy Webmoor (2007)
What about ‘one more turn after the social’ in archaeological reasoning? Taking things seriouslyWorld Archaeology, 39
A. Jones (2004)
Archaeometry and materiality: materials-based analysis in theory and practice*Archaeometry, 46
A. Wylie (1985)
The reaction against analogy, 8
Levi Bryant, Nicholas Srnicek, G. Harman (2011)
The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism
T Murray (1999)
Time and archaeology
MB Collins (1975)
Sampling in archaeology
Bjørnar Olsen, M. Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore (2012)
Archaeology: The Discipline of Things
M. Bille, Frida Hastrup, T. Sørensen (2010)
An anthropology of absence : materializations of transcendence and loss
E Leach (1973)
The explanation of culture change: models in prehistory
G. Bailey (1983)
Concepts of Time in Quaternary PrehistoryAnnual Review of Anthropology, 12
M. Shanks, D. Platt, W. Rathje (2004)
The Perfume of Garbage: Modernity and the ArchaeologicalModernism/modernity, 11
C. Lévi-Strauss (1967)
The Savage Mind
G. Jason (1988)
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
B. Asher (1994)
The Professional VisionAmerican Journalism, 11
L. Olivier (2011)
The Dark Abyss of Time: Archaeology and Memory
Nigel Clark (2007)
Thing TheoryHuman Studies, 30
I. Hodder (1997)
‘Always momentary, fluid and flexible’: towards a reflexive excavation methodologyAntiquity, 71
J-F Lyotard (1991)
Phenomenology
Linda Patrik (1985)
Is There an Archaeological Record
L Meskell (2013)
Cultural histories of the material world
T. Kuhn, David Hawkins (1963)
The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsAmerican Journal of Physics, 31
Gabrielle Durepos (2008)
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor‐Network‐TheoryEquality, Diversity and Inclusion, 27
C. Knappett, L. Malafouris (2007)
Material Agency: Towards a Non-Anthropocentric Approach
G. Lucas (2004)
Modern Disturbances: On the Ambiguities of ArchaeologyModernism/modernity, 11
J. Koehler (2016)
Archaeology For Dummies
Bjørnar Olsen (2003)
Material culture after text: re‐membering thingsNorwegian Archaeological Review, 36
Rodney Harrison, J. Schofield (2009)
Archaeo-Ethnography, Auto-Archaeology: Introducing Archaeologies of the Contemporary PastArchaeologies, 5
G. Harman (2014)
Entanglement and Relation: A Response to Bruno Latour and Ian HodderNew Literary History, 45
G. Bailey (2007)
Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of timeJournal of Anthropological Archaeology, 26
K. Hetherington (2004)
Secondhandedness: Consumption, Disposal, and Absent PresenceEnvironment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22
R. Gould, M. Schiffer (1997)
Formation Processes of the Archaeological Record.Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 3
J. Sabloff, L. Binford, P. Mcanany (1987)
Understanding the archaeological recordAntiquity, 61
The archaeological is regularly perceived in negative terms as lacking and deficient. It is fragmented, static, and crude, a residue of past living societies. Accordingly, much of archaeologists’ efforts are directed toward the amendment of these flaws. The present paper, however, argues that these so-called deficiencies are in fact constitutive absences. Whatever the archaeological lacks, it lacks by definition. It thus follows that working to render the archaeological “complete” is in fact an effort to undo it, to convert it into something else. For the sake of discovering the past, archaeological practice is a sustained effort to rid itself of the very phenomenon that defines it, consequently setting in motion self-perpetuating circularity predicated on deficiency and compensation. The reason for this, it is suggested, is the otherness of the archaeological, being at one and the same time a cultural phenomenon and a fossil record, a social construct and a geological deposit. This condition is so baffling that it is approached by transforming it into something familiar. The paper argues that understanding the archaeological should be archaeology’s first priority. Insofar as it is also the study of the past, this should be predicated on the understanding of the archaeological present.
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory – Springer Journals
Published: Mar 7, 2016
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.