This book starts from the premise that methodology - the procedures for obtaining an 'objective' knowledge of the past - has always dominated archaeology to the detriment of broader social theory. It argues that social theory is archaeological theory, and that past failure to recognise this has resulted in disembodied archaeological theory and weak disciplinary practice. Ideology, Power and Prehistory therefore seeks to reinstate the primacy of social theory and the social nature of the past worlds that archaeologists seek to understand. The contributors to this book argue that past peoples, the creators of the archaeological records, should be understood as actively manipulating their own material world to represent and misrepresent their own and others' interests. Thus the concepts of ideology and power, long discussed in social and political science yet largely ignored by archaeologists, must henceforward play a central role in our understanding of the past as a social creation. Archaeologists must now consider how the material remains they study were used to create images by past societies, which do not simply mirror or reflect but actively orientate the nature of these societies.

Ideology, Power and Prehistory (New Directions in Archaeology)

Politics & Social Sciences

Tilley, Christopher

Miller, Daniel

Archaeology

Cambridge University Press

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Re-Constructing Archaeology: Theory and Practice (New Studies in Archaeology)

History

Shanks, Michael

Ancient Civilizations

An Ethnography of the Neolithic provides a provocative and novel reconstruction of society in Scandinavia over a period of 3,000 years. Christopher Tilley integrates a wide range of evidence, from prehistoric landscapes to the symbolic significance of axes and pots, to recreate in an accessible way the lives of the final hunter-gatherer-fishers and first farmers in Sweden and Denmark. His skillful fusion of archaeological evidence and new anthropological approaches makes this book an original contribution to a widely debated topic.

An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia (New Studies in Archaeology)

This book provides an innovative contribution to debates about the use of metaphor in the social sciences written by one of today's foremost archaeological theorists.

Metaphor and Material Culture (Social Archaeology)

Wiley/Blackwell

This book provides an innovative contribution to debates about the use of metaphor in the social sciences written by one of today's foremost archaeological theorists.

Metaphor and Material Culture

Archaeological theory and method have recently become the subject of vigorous debate centred on the growing realization that archaeological theory is social theory and as such can be looked at by means of a wide variety of sociological frameworks, such as structuralism and post-structuralism, Marxism and critical theory. In this analysis, Shanks and Tilley argue against the functionalism and positivism which result from an inadequate assimilation of social theory into the day-to-day practice of archaeology. Aimed at an advanced undergraduate audience, the book presents a challenge to the traditional idea of the archaeologist as explorer or discoverer and the more recent emphasis on archaeology as behavioural science. The authors examine and evaluate the new possibilities for a self-reflexive, critical and political practice of archaeology, productively linking the past to the present.

Social Theory and Archaeology

Polity

Univ of New Mexico Pr

A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments (Explorations in Anthropology)

Offers a new approach to landscape perception.This book is an extended photographic essay about topographic features of the landscape. It integrates philosophical approaches to landscape perception with anthropological studies of the significance of the landscape in small-scale societies. This perspective is used to examine the relationship between prehistoric sites and their topographic settings. The author argues that the architecture of Neolithic stone tombs acts as a kind of camera lens focussing attention on landscape features such as rock outcrops, river valleys, mountain spurs in their immediate surroundings. These monuments played an active role in socializing the landscape and creating meaning in it.A Phenomenology of Landscape is unusual in that it links two types of publishing which have remained distinct in archaeology: books with atmospheric photographs of monuments with a minimum of text and no interpretation; and the academic text in which words provide a substitute for visual imagery. Attractively illustrated with many photographs and diagrams, it will appeal to anyone interested in prehistoric monuments and landscape as well as students and specialists in archaeology, anthropology and human geography. 'Reception, perception and interpretation are key to understanding landscapes. This book provides a useful starting point for comprehension of these topics.'Dr. Stuart Prior, University of Bristol

Berg Publishers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tilley, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Tilley, Christopher

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Tilley, Christopher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Ideology, Power and Prehistory (New Directions in Archaeology)

Ideology, Power and Prehistory (New Directions in Archaeology)

Re-Constructing Archaeology: Theory and Practice (New Studies in Archaeology)

An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia (New Studies in Archaeology)

An Ethnography of the Neolithic: Early Prehistoric Societies in Southern Scandinavia (New Studies in Archaeology)

Metaphor and Material Culture (Social Archaeology)

Metaphor and Material Culture

Social Theory and Archaeology

Social Theory and Archaeology

A Phenomenology of Landscape: Places, Paths and Monuments (Explorations in Anthropology)