ABSTRACT
One of the most significant ways in which archaeology finds itself embedded in modernity lies in its adherence to a conception of knowledge that privileges method. Throughout the twentieth century, archaeologists sought to establish abstract methodologies which might later be brought to bear upon material evidence. Effectively, a hierarchy was in place whereby universal and decontextualised logic was valued over the particular, the historical and the tangible. Indeed, it was often claimed that the evidence could only be rendered intelligible when a foolproof and already perfected methodology was applied to it. Even Ian Hodder (1997: 691) lamented the lack of a discussion of ‘post-processual methodology’ in the final years of the century. In this chapter I will hope to trace the emergence of this predisposition towards formal method in early modern philosophical thought, and demonstrate the ways in which it has affected the practice of archaeology.
