Description
Book SynopsisIn this compendium of essays, Alsion Wylie explores how archaeologists know what they know. Examining the history and methodology of Anglo-American archaeology, Wylie puts the tumultuous debates of the 30 years from the early 1970s onwards in historical and philosophical perspective.
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments PART ONE. Introduction Philosophy from the Ground Up PART TWO. How New Is the New Archaeology, and Other Historical Essays 1. How New Is the New Archaeology? 2. The Typology Debate 3. The Conceptual Core of the New Archaeology 4. Emergent Tensions in the New Archaeology 5. Arguments for Scientific Realism 6. Between Philosophy and Archaeology PART THREE. Interpretive Dilemmas: Crisis Arguments in the New Archaeology 7. The Interpretive Dilemma 8. Epistemological Issues Raised by Symbolic and Structuralist Archaeology 9. The Reaction against Analogy 10. Putting Shakertown Back Together: Critical Theory in Archaeology 11. Archaeological Cables and Tacking: Beyond Objectivism and Relativism PART FOUR. On Being "Empirical" but Not "Narrowly Empiricist" 12. "Heavily Decomposing Red Herrings": Middle Ground in the Anti-/Postprocessualism Wars 13. Bootstrapping in the Un-natural Sciences--Archaeology, for Example 14. The Constitution of Archaeological Evidence: Gender Politics and Science 15. Rethinking Unity as a "Working Hypothesis" for Philosophy of Science: How Archaeologists Exploit the Disunities of Science 16. Unification and Convergence in Archaeological Explanation PART FIVE. Issues of Accountability 17. Ethical Dilemmas in Archaeological Practice: The (Trans)formation of Disciplinary Identity Notes Bibliography Index
