New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology

New Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology offers a methodologically refreshing approach to the study of cultural evolution. It recognizes the fundamental role that anthropology now plays in archaeology and also integrates the strengths of various research paradigms which characterize archaeology on the world scene today, including New or Processual, Post-Processual, Evolutionist, Cognitive, Symbolic, Marxist and Historical Archaeologies. It does so by taking into account the cultural and, when possible, the historical context of the material remains being studied. This involves the development of models concerning the formative role of cognition, symbolism and ideology in human societies to explain the more material and economic dimensions of human culture that are the natural purview of archaeological data. It also involves an understanding of the cultural ecology of the societies being studied and of the limitations and opportunities that the environment imposes on the evolution or devolution of human societies. Based on the assumption that cultures never develop in isolation, anthropological archaeology takes a regional approach to tackling fundamental issues concerning past cultural evolution anywhere in the world.