Berkeley Book List: Contemporary Anthropological Archaeology
Rosemary Joyce, professor, Anthropology Thinking from Things: Essays in the Philosophy of Archaeology, Alison Wylie, University of California Press, 2002 The Archaeological Process, Ian Hodder, Blackwell, 1999 Death By Theory: A Tale of Mystery and Archaeology Theory, Adrian Praetzellis, Altamira Press, 2000 The Archaeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife's Tale, Laurie Wilkie, Routledge, 2003 Indigenous Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice, Joe Watkins, AltaMira Press, 2000 Archaeologies of Sexuality, ed. Robert Schmidt and Barbara Voss, Routledge, 2000 |
Archaeology today has shifted radically away from the pop culture image of the explorer seeking valuable objects for museum collections. Since 1960, archaeology as practiced under the disciplinary umbrella of anthropology has experienced 40 years of intense theoretical and philosophical debate. The legacy of this period of change can be seen in the identity of archaeologists — the typical archaeologist today is a woman, and more likely than ever before to be a person of color; the settings where archaeologists practice their profession — the typical archaeologist is most likely to work in the public sector, on sites threatened by development, in what we call Cultural Resources Management, or CRM; and the kind of questions archaeologists think are worth investigating — such as greater concern with public interests and the issues important to descendant communities. It is an exciting time to be an archaeologist.
My first three recommendations give a sense of contemporary theoretical ferment, albeit in very different tones. In Thinking from Things: Essays in the Philosophy of Archaeology, philosopher Alison Wylie argues that anthropological archaeology provides a unique example of how social scientists cope with challenges in the creation of knowledge. Her immensely scholarly book detects examples in archaeology of a range of contemporary problems and strategies in the philosophy of science. From inside the discipline, archaeologist Ian Hodder offers in The Archaeological Process a deceptively simple explanation of innovative field practice and its implications for interpretation. Hodder, widely credited with initiating a critique of the dominant "processual" school of archaeology in the 1980s, directs a major archaeological project at Çatal Hüyük in Turkey, using Web-based communication to link specialists and engage broader public-interest groups, including followers of the Goddess Movement who see the site as critical to their view of history. Finally, historical archaeologist Adrian Praetzellis has fun with the popularity of archaeological mysteries in his hilariously illustrated book, Death By Theory. His refreshing personalization of theoretical positions in the form of characters in the mystery aptly represents the differences new theoretical orientations make, while staying even-handed about the excesses of each of the contemporary schools of archaeological theory.
My other three choices for books exemplify the breadth of subjects addressed in contemporary archaeology. The Archaeology of Mothering: An African-American Midwife's Tale, by UC Berkeley historical archaeologist Laurie Wilkie, builds on scrupulous fieldwork on a late 19th-century African-American site to present an account of motherhood that exemplifies the directions of new research on gender in archaeology and the archaeology of the recent past. Joe Watkins, in Indigenous Archaeology: American Indian Values and Scientific Practice, explores the contradictions of being Native American and an archaeologist. He covers some of the most hotly contested terrain in contemporary archaeology, a new era in which passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act holds U.S. archaeologists accountable to native peoples. Lastly, although the previous books are all single-author monographs, much of archaeological writing is in the form of edited volumes. Archaeologies of Sexuality, edited by Robert Schmidt and Barbara Voss, brings together contributors writing about every possible aspect of sexuality that can be addressed from archaeological data, spanning the distance from ancient Egypt to the Classic Maya, from women's prisons in Australia to California's Chumash people.
About Rosemary Joyce
Rosemary A. Joyce, professor of Anthropology at the
University of California, Berkeley, has engaged in archaeological
fieldwork in Honduras since 1977. She was selected the 2003 Distinguished
Lecturer of the Archeology Division of the American Anthropological
Association, and has
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She received the PhD from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1985 in anthropology, specializing in archaeology. At Harvard University from 1985 to 1994, she served as assistant director and curator at the Peabody Museum, and taught as assistant and later associate professor of Anthropology. She moved to Berkeley as director of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology and associate professor of Anthropology in 1994 and served in that capacity until 1999. Her publications include "Embodied Lives: Figuring Ancient Egypt and the Classic Maya" (with Lynn Meskell, Routledge, 2003), "The Languages of Archaeology: Dialogue, Narrative, and Writing" (Blackwell, 2002), "Gender and Power in Prehispanic Mesoamerica" (University of Texas 2001), and "Women in Prehistory: North American and Mesoamerica" (ed. with Cheryl Claassen, University of Pennsylvania 1997.
