ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the stage for the book, outlining and contextualizing the key components of a theoretically engaged and future-oriented archaeology. It begins by emphasizing the role of politics and theory in this project, arguing that archaeological thought has something useful to contribute to the broader world. Although often relegated to the ivory tower and sometimes treated as an afterthought to the “real stuff” of archaeology, the authors argue that theory is ubiquitous, albeit often ignored, in all forms and phases of the archaeological process. In the second part of the chapter, the authors identify five different existing forms of future-oriented archaeology before outlining their theoretical inspirations: relational thinking, posthumanism, post-anthropocentrism, new materialism, and assemblage theory. The chapter concludes by setting out the structure for the rest of the book.
