Archaeology and Anthropology: Understanding Similarity, Exploring Difference

This book focuses on the relationship between the disciplines of archaeology and anthropology. Both disciplines arose from a common project: a desire to understand human social and cultural diversity. However, in recent years, archaeologys interest in anthropology has remained largely unreciprocated. To date, the causes and consequences of this imbalance have received little attention, particularly within anthropology. Including papers by eminent thinkers within both disciplines, this book sheds new light on issues of disciplinary identity. The contributors show how a lack of collaboration has resulted in a narrowing of horizons within both disciplines and explore the grounds upon which these might be opened up. The papers draw on a range of theoretical perspectives and empirical case-studies, but are unified in their concern to explore the ideological, practical and methodological commitments that mark each discipline as distinct. Ultimately, the volume arrives at the startling conclusion that archaeologys apparent absence of data may actually be a positive attribute, leading to a distinctive approach from which anthropology can learn. Table of Contents 1. Introduction: archaeological anthropology (Duncan Garrow & Thomas Yarrow) 2. Not knowing as knowledge: asymmetry between archaeology and anthropology (Thomas Yarrow) 3. Triangulating absence: exploring the fault-lines between archaeology and anthropology (Gavin Lucas) 4. Spaces that were not densely occupied – questioning ‘ephemeral’ evidence (Lesley McFadyen) 5. On the boundary: new perspectives from ethnography of archaeology (Matt Edgeworth) 6. Archaeology and the anthropology of memory: takes on the recent past (Paola Filippucci) 7. Resolving archaeological and ethnographic tensions: a case study from South-Central California (David Robinson) 8. Words and things: thick description in archaeology and anthropology (Chris Gosden) 9. Re-evaluating the long term: civilisation and temporalities (Stephan Feuchtwang and Michael Rowlands) 10. Relational personhood as a subject of anthropology and archaeology: comparative and complementary analyses (Chris Fowler) 11. No more ancient; no more human: the future past of archaeology and anthropology (Tim Ingold) 12. Commentary. Boundary objects and asymmetries (Marilyn Strathern) 13. Commentary. Walls and bridges (Julian Thomas) Index