The Best of !"What Archaeological Theory Looks Like#!

!from George Nicholas! !

Archaeological Theory "ARCH 471# Class!Simon Fraser University!

2005$2012!!!!%

!

I teach the undergraduate Archaeological Theory course each semester at SFU. The final exercise in the course is

曨What Does Archaeological Theory Look Like?杇!!

The students are asked to visualize archaeological theory in a way that is meaningful to them. !

!

As you will see, their work not only reveals much about their particular views of archaeology, but often does so in

some wonderfully creative and thoughtful ways.!!

!!

!

%

George Nicholas teaching Archeological theory

hmmm …. or us learning theory? !

Debbie!

Kelcie!Brock!

What an archaeologist, with no theory training, is thinking about in the field.!

Kelcie!Brock!

What an archaeologist with theory training is thinking !

Tyronne!

Clayton!

Ross!

Nicole!

Brittney!

Ania!Alannah!

Mirror, Mirror

on the wall,

who’s the most

theorist of them

all?

!"#$%&'()*+',-##.'

Marxism!

Feminism!

Culture History! Functionism!

Critical archaeology!

Indigenous archaeology !

Environmental e#ects!

Dialectical!

To be

continued!?

Mirror, Mirror

on the wall,

who’s the most

theorist of them

all?

The answer is in

yourself as you take a

way a little bit away

from everyone you’ve

encountered.

Besides! there are

ones that are too late to

feed apple with anyway.

!"#$%&'()*+',-##.'

Tyler!

!"#$%&'%#()*+",(-".*)/"(,"*0"*')$*%&+&1()*+")&0203'245"

Ross!Ryan!

Alex%

曨His first day in Theory杇%

Ryan%

Aaron%

Culture Future!

Culture History!

Nonsense! Nonsense !

Positivism! Relativism!Moderatism!

Processualism! Post$Processualism !

Materialism! Idealism!

The Theoretical Spectrum and the Culture Cone

Michael%

Tory%

Laura%

Culture History

Archaeological

Theory Today

The Future of

Archaeological

Theory

Processual

Archaeology

Marxist

Post-Processual

Feminist Symbolic/ Contextual

Indigenous

Antiquarianism

Functionalism

The Stratigraphy

of Archaeological

Theory.

Shannon Enns

Shannon%

Kelcie%

Diana%

Hollis%

Kyla%

Phoebe%

Anonymous%

David%

David%

David%

David%

David%

The Band!

Band! Tribe!

Chiefdom!State!

A.   Evolutionism - Unilinear

B.   Neo-Evolutionism

C.   Diffusionism

D.   None of the Above

E.  Intermission Arch 471

!

Circle the BEST answer:

Ann%

Arch 471 Theory killed me.! Just Kidding!!!!!!!

Laurie%

Aviva

Kitty%

Brianne%

A Student in ARCH 471 During the Last Week of Classes!

Shane%

Joey%!

Keyna%

Kody%

Morgan%

Steven%

Shirley%

Nicholas%

Nicole%

Liana%

Allison%

Beverley%

Note: Contact between units is not sharp, parts of lower units continue into the next. While one unit may be dominated by a particular deposit, previous deposits may also occur within the unit, and do not cease to exist within the profile. !

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Alisha%

Jesse%

Matt%

Mary%

Neil%

Stacey%

Annette%

Megan%

Megan%

Tabatha%

Tabatha%

Tabatha%

Mindy%

Karen%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Ken%

Archaeological Theory Processual Archaeology

Post-processual Archaeology

Culture History

Structural Functionalism

Neo-evolutionism

Cultural Ecology

Unilinear Cultural Evolution

Lisa%

Chapter 3�%

In which our hero reaches a turning point in his

intellectual growth.

— We join little Alex as his instructor counsels him…

April%

It was decided that Alex required further education.%

"Digging in the dirt is

all well and good

Alex, but you!d get

much more out of it if

you had a strong

grounding in

archaeological

theory…#%

Little Alex eagerly awaits the first of many "Theory Treatments…#"

"Gosh Professor, this is

gonna be FUN!#

After a few treatments, he could see that archaeology had become a bit

"androcentric.#%

Strolling with the boys.

From left:

White, Binford, Flannery

and Clarke %

It was sometimes painful to take in so much information… %

We can know about Human antiquity, But it!s complicated! There!s no single,

true! account of

the past.

It!s all…

CONTINGENT!!

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!

His education in theory complete, little Alex sets out with new

intellectual tools with which to decode the past!% %

% Don!t be afraid!

Come with me and we!ll apply theory to our research! We!ll have oh so much fun as we postulate possible pasts!!

Innocence lost. Wisdom gained. %

The End.

Kate%

Sharon%

Nikki%

Louise%

Cheryl%

Archaeologist and

their different theories

Archaeological Site%

Becky%

Jordan%

Megan%

Gabrielle%

Theory is the backbone of archaeology!

Antiquarianism!Di#usionism!

Essentialism!

Culture History!

Processualism!

Ethnoarchaeology !Middle Range Theory !

Postprocessualism!

Feminist/Marxist/!Indigenous

Archaeology!

Hermeneutics!Science/Humanity!

Relativism/Positivism!

Ideology!

Vanessa%

Ch

else

y!

An

thon

y%

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Chelsey!Alex%

Bruce Trigger and the Arch Theorists!Across the Spatio-temporal Dimension�

Also Starring: Meg Conkey as Penny Priddy and Giovanni Belzoni as Lord John Whorfin !

A Bondar Production!

Ryan%

Alissa%

The Great Boulder of

Archaeological Theory that will CRUSH you for your

transgressions%

The terrified archaeology student pleads 曨But wait!

Don暍t crush me! I暍ve become self-critical and

won暍t take artefacts without descendent

communities暍 permission!杇%

Michael%

Chelsey%

%Note spray paint cans&!

In Disguise: My Fall 2009 Class %

My Gift T-shirt: Spring 2009%(Students暍 Shirt Reads: 曨Theory Survivor杇 with Skull and Cross-bones)%