The Meanings of Things
Material Culture and Symbolic Expression
Ian Hodder(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
Published on 15. December 1988
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-04-445017-7 (ISBN)
Description
One of a series of books resulting from the 1986 World Archaeological Congress held in Southampton, England. The 25 articles by authors from around the world examine some of the following topics: objectivity in interpretation; the "meaning" of archaeological objects; symbolic expression; style; ritual and burial; spatial meanings. A number of the papers use the methods and concepts of semiotics. Hodder has presented the papers in a random order for post-structuralist reasons (ie to avoid imposing his own "meaning" on the diverse papers included in the volume and to encourage readers to construct their own interpretations).
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
illustrations, bibliography, index
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 150 mm
Weight
680 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-04-445017-7 (9780044450177)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
The political use of Australian Aboriginal body painting and its archaeological implications, R.Layton; terracotta worship in fringe Bengal, D.K.Bhattacharya; iron and beads - male and female symbols of creation, a study of ornament among Booran Oromo, A.Kassam and G.Megersa; the messages of material behaviour - a preliminary discussion of non-verbal meaning, R.Fletcher; religious cults and ritual practice among the Mendi people of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, T.Mawe; sites as texts - an exploration of Mousterian traces, L.J.Botscharow; style and changing relations between the individual and society, P.Wiessner; post- modernism, post-structuralism and post-processual archaeology, I.Hodder; "we the post-megalithic people...", F.Criado; the diffusion of religious symbols within complex societies, L.Charles Hulin; social evidence from the interpretation of Middle Minoan figurines, A.Pilali-Papasteriou; the Priestess figure of Malta, C.Biaggi; ethno-archaeological cognition and cognitive ethno-archaeology, Z.Kobylinski; heresy and its traces - the material results of culture, K.Teague; etics, emics and empathy in archaeological theory, E.M.Melas; bark capes, arrowheads and Concorde - on social representations of technology, P.Lemonnier; the artifact as abbreviated act - a social interpretation of material culture, M.Richardson; the material symbols of the Winnebago sky and earth moieties, R.L.Hall; interpreting material culture, C.Tilley; divine kingdoms in northern Africa - material manifestations of social institutions, E.J.Kleppe; towards an archaeology of thought, W.Davis; Tusona ideographs - a lesson in interpretive objectivity, G.Kubik; organizational constraints on tattoo images - a sociological analysis of artistic style, C.R.Saunders; a semiotic approach in rock-art analysis, A.M.Llamazares; habitus and social space - some suggestions about meaning in the Saami (Lapp) tent circa 1700-1900, T.Yates.