Archaeological Concepts for the Study of the Cultural Past

One
idiosyncrasy of archaeology in North America is that it is considered a
sub-field of cultural anthropology. To explore the dimensions of this
situation, editor Alan P. Sullivan assembled a group of practicing
archaeologists, each with different expertise, to analyze problems with the
current disciplinary arrangement and to recommend changes in practice and
pedagogy that might coalesce into a truly archaeological study of the
cultural past.

By using the theoretical tension that has arisen between archaeology and
cultural anthropology, the contributors illustrate the effectiveness of
concepts and methods that have little, if any, overlap with those of the
mother discipline.

Archaeological Concepts for the Study of the Cultural Past examines the
degree to which the historically close relationship between archaeology and
cultural anthropology may actually have inhibited archaeological
investigations-particularly of those aspects of the cultural past that may be
ethnographically undocumented or incompletely described.