Social Theory and Archaeology

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. Tensions, pluralities, and engendering archaeology: an introduction to women and prehistory / Margaret W. Conkey and Joan M. Gero

Gender theory and the archaeological record: why is there no archaeology of gender? / Alison Wylie

Contexts of action, contexts for power: material culture and gender in the Magdalenian / Margaret W. Conkey

Households with faces : the challenge of gender in prehistoric architectural remains / Ruth E. Tringham

Gender, space, and food in prehistory / Christine A. Hastorf

Genderlithics : women's roles in stone tool production / Joan M. Gero

Women's labor and pottery production in prehistory / Rita P. Wright

Weaving and cooking: women's production in Aztec Mexico / Elizabeth M. Brumfiel

Development of horticulture in the Eastern Woodlands of North America : women's role / Patty Jo Watson and Mary C. Kennedy

Gender shellfishing, and the shell mound archaic / Cheryl P. Claassen

Pounding acorn: women's production as social and economic focus / Thomas L. Jackson

Whose art was found at Lepenski Vir? Gender relations and power in archaeology / Russell G. Handsman

Women in a men's world: images of Sumerian women / Susan Pollock

What this awl means: toward a feminist archaeology / Janet D. Spector.

Michael Shanks is the author of Social Theory and Archaeology, published by Wiley. Chris Tilley is a British archaeologist known for his contributions to postprocessualist archaeological theory. He is currently a Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at University College London.