ABSTRACT
Anthropological archaeology has traditionally been the subfield of anthropology that has concerned itself most emphatically with the study of material culture, and architecture in particular. Traditionally, archaeology has almost invariably been preoccupied with architectural remains. This chapter examines this tradition along with postprocessual responses to the New Archaeology and the similarities and differences of these approaches toward the study of architecture. The emphasis on neo-evolutionary approaches discussed by Bohannan suggests a renewed preoccupation with the systems of cultural processes, well in keeping with the concerns of the New Archaeology. As linguistics helped to establish nation-states, this long-held preoccupation with language played a significant role in the development of archaeological theory about architecture. Archaeology’s focus on diachronic time in relation to architectural forms suggests the limits of established analytical categories and how they can be expanded more meaningfully.
