Reading the Past: Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology

By Ian Hodder and Scott Hutson

Book Overview

This is a completely revised edition of Ian Hodder's controversial textbook first published in 1986. The mainstream archaeology of the seventies, 'processual archaeology', modelled itself on the natural sciences. It has been challenged in recent years by a 'post-processual' archaeology which draws upon the wider perspectives of history and social anthropology, insisting that account must be taken of the context and meaning of behaviour, and that the ideological uses of archaeology be recognised by practitioners. Ian Hodder, a leading figure in the new movement, argues that in explaining the behaviour of past societies a concern with meaning must be joined to the study of ecological constraints and economic and social processes. This leads him to discuss systems theory and structuralist and Marxist approaches in archaeology.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 052133960X
• ISBN13: 9780521339605
• Release Date: December 1986
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A tremendous book!

Reading the past is Hodders first book where he explicitly descibes the new post-processual archaeology and give critics about the processual (and other) approach. Truly a paradigm-shift, this book is the first book that covers the basic ideas of post-processualism...