ABSTRACT

Archaeology for Today and Tomorrow explores how cutting-edge archaeological theories have implications not only for how we study the past but also how we think about and prepare for the future.

Ranging from how we understand migration or political leadership to how we think about violence or ecological crisis, the book argues that archaeology should embrace a “future-oriented” attitude. Behind the traditional archaeological gaze on the past is a unique and useful collection of skills, tools, and orientations for rethinking the present and future. Further, it asserts that archaeological theory is not only vital for how we conduct our work as archaeologists and how we create narratives about the past but also for how we think about the broader world in the present and, crucially, how we envision and shape the future. Each of the chapters in the book links theoretical approaches and global archaeological case studies to a specific contemporary issue. It examines such issues as human movement, violence, human and non-human relations, the Anthropocene, and fake news to showcase the critical contributions that archaeology, and archaeological theory, can make to shaping the world of tomorrow.

An ideal book for courses on archaeology in the modern world and public archaeology, it will also appeal to archaeology students and researchers in general and all those in related disciplines interested in areas of critical contemporary concern.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

chapter Chapter 1|15 pages

Building an archaeology for today and tomorrow

Title
An introduction
Size: 1.47 MB

chapter Chapter 2|17 pages

Archaeology and migration

Title
More-than-human movements
Size: 2.39 MB

chapter Chapter 3|16 pages

Archaeology and capitalism

Title
Flows and desires
Size: 1.54 MB

chapter Chapter 4|17 pages

Leaders of the past, leaders in the future

Title
Rethinking power
Size: 1.56 MB

chapter Chapter 5|17 pages

Violence across the human/ non-human divide

Title
The virtual and the actual
Size: 1.89 MB

chapter Chapter 6|18 pages

All the world's a type

Title
Rethinking difference and taxonomy
Size: 2.57 MB

chapter Chapter 7|17 pages

How we know the past

Title
Truth as relational and emergent
Size: 1.66 MB

chapter Chapter 8|18 pages

The past as multiple

Title
Positive difference, ontological difference
Size: 1.63 MB

chapter Chapter 9|17 pages

Archaeology and the Anthropocene

Title
Futurity and affect
Size: 1.15 MB

chapter Chapter 10|15 pages

Building an archaeology for today and tomorrow

Title
A conclusion
Size: 0.45 MB