This book pursues the implications of questions of cultural identity for archaeology from a variety of perspectives. It offers a remarkably comprehensive treatment of issues that are becoming more important than ever in the modern world. The topics discussed in the book include the nature and limits of archaeological claims to knowledge of the past, the way material culture relates to other aspects of cultural identity and the significance of changing patterns of cultural variation in the past. The book's contributors come from an enormous range of backgrounds, offering a rich diversity of perspectives on the issues.
Author(s): S. J. Shennan
Series: One World Archaeology
Edition: 2
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 346
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of contributors page......Page 8
Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 28
Introduction: archaeological approaches to cultural identity......Page 30
OBJECTIVITY, INTERESTS AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION......Page 62
Ethnic concepts in German prehistory: a case study on the relationship between cultural identity and archaeological objectivity......Page 64
The Vandals: myths and facts about a Germanic tribe of the first half of the 1st millennium AD......Page 86
Theory, profession, and the political rle of archaeology......Page 96
An epistemological enquiry into some archaeological and historical interpretations of 17th century Native American-European relations......Page 105
Matters of fact and matters of interest......Page 123
The rle of 'local knowledge' in archaeological interpretation......Page 139
CULTURAL IDENTITY AND ITS MATERIAL EXPRESSION IN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT......Page 152
Material aspects of Limba, Yalunka and Kuranko ethnicity: archaeological research in northeastern Sierra Leone......Page 154
Multiculturalism in the eastern Andes......Page 170
The property of symmetry and the concept of ethnic style......Page 186
Patterns of learning, residence and descent among potters in Ticul, Yucatan, Mexico......Page 203
Some ethnospecific features in central and eastern European archaeology during the early Middle Ages: the case of Avars and Hungarians......Page 214
Ancient ethnic groups as represented on bronzes from Yunnan, China......Page 224
The archaeology of the Yoruba: problems and possibilities......Page 236
Ethnicity and traditions in Mesolithic mortuary practices of southern Scandinavia......Page 239
Detecting political units in archaeology;an Iron Age example......Page 248
THE GENESIS, MAINTENANCE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF ETHNICITY AND CULTURAL VARIATION......Page 260
Who is what? A preliminary enquiry into cultural and physical identity......Page 262
Sociocultural and economic elements of the adaptation systems of the Argentine Toba: the Nacilamolek and Taksek cases of Formosa Province......Page 271
Spatial heterogeneity in Fuego-Patagonia......Page 287
Cultural and ethnic processes in prehistory as seen through the evidence of archaeology and related disciplines......Page 296
Research with style: a case study from Australian rock art......Page 307
Steppe traditions and cultural assimilation of a nomadic people: the Cumanians in Hungary in the 13th 14th century......Page 320
An ethnic change or a socio-economic one? The 5th and 6th centuries AD in the Polish lands......Page 332
Index......Page 342
