Preface: The Contradictions of Theory

This book is an introductory essay on archaeological theory. It tries to explain something of what "theory" is, its relationship to archaeological practice, how it has developed within archaeology over the past few decades, and how archaeological thought relates to theory in the human sciences and the intellectual world generally.

To many, "theory" is a dirty word both within and outside archaeology. Prince Charles earned almost universal approbation when he condemned "trendy theorists" in education; nobody however, including the Prince himself, seemed to be very clear precisely who he meant. When visiting an archaeological site a few years ago a suggestion of mine met with laughter and the response "that's a typical suggestion of a theorist." I don't recall anyone telling me exactly why my suggestion was so absurd, and when I visited the site the following year the strategy had been adopted. For the meat-and-potatoes Anglo-Saxon world in particular, theory is an object of profound suspicion. It is a popular saying that for the English, to be called an intellectual is to be suspected of wanting to steal someone's wife (sexism in the original). Theory, "political correctness," and being "foreign" stand together in the dock as traits to be regarded with hostility in the English-speaking world - and beyond; there is even a word for hostility to theory in German - Theoriefeindlichkeit. I shall look at some of the reasons why this is so in Chapter 1.

At the same time, however, theory is increasingly popular, and seen as increasingly important, both within and outside archaeology. Valentine Cunningham commented in The Times Higher Education Supplement that theorists in academia are "a surging band, cocky, confident in academic credentials, job security and intellectual prestige," inspiring the columnist Laurie Taylor to write a memorable account of a bunch of theorists intellectually roughing up a more empirical colleague at a seminar before departing to the local bar. His account was fictitious but contained much truth.

"You're a terrorist? Thank God. I understood Meg to say you were a theorist."

Source: From Culler (1997, p. 16).

There are various indices of the "success" of an explicitly defined archaeological theory; one might cite the frequency of "theoretical" symposia at major conferences such as the Society for American Archaeology or the European Association of Archaeology, or the incidence of "theory" articles in the major journals. One particularly telling index is the rise and rise of the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference (). This was formed as a small talking-shop for British archaeological theorists in the late 1970s, but since then has become the largest annual archaeological conference in Britain, with substantial participation from North America and Europe. There are now parallel organizations in North America, Scandinavia (Nordic-TAG), and Germany (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Theorie).

It is true that a lot of papers delivered at TAG scarcely merit the term "theoretical," and even more true that many only come for the infamous TAG party in any case. It must also be conceded that the degree of impact of TAG's and "theory's" influence on the "real world" of archaeological practice, and the cultural and legislative framework of archaeology, is debatable. The theorist often feels like Cassandra, constantly giving what he or she sees as profound predictions and insight and constantly being ignored by the decision-makers.

This book is written to give the student an introduction to a few of the strands of current thinking in archaeological theory. It is deliberately written as an introduction, in as clear and jargon-free a fashion as the author can manage (though as we shall see, criteria of clarity and of what constitutes jargon are riddled with problems).

It is intended as a "route map" for the student. That is, it seeks to point out prominent landmarks on the terrain of theory, to comment on relationships between different bodies of thought, and to clarify the intellectual underpinnings of certain views. As such, it is anything but an encyclopedia; it is hardly one-tenth of a comprehensive guide to the field, if such a guide could be written. The text should be read with reference to the Further Reading and Glossary sections and overgeneralization, oversimplification, and caricatures of viewpoints are necessary evils.

Above all, I remind all readers of the fourth word in the title of this book. I have tried to write an Introduction. The book and its different chapters are meant to be a starting-point for the student on a range of issues, which the student can then explore in greater depth through the Further Reading sections. Many of the comments and criticisms made of earlier editions of this book focused on an alleged over- or under-emphasis of a particular theoretical viewpoint, or perceived lack of coverage. Many of these criticisms were valid, and I have tried to deal with them in later editions; but many evaluated the text as a position statement with which they happened to agree or disagree, rather than on its pedagogical intention, that is as an introductory route map to the issues. Additionally, students need to be reminded that this book should be the start, not the end, of their reading and thinking, a point I will return to in the Conclusion. A route map is not an encyclopedia.

To pursue the route map analogy, the route followed here is one of several that could be taken through the terrain of archaeological theory. I could have devoted a chapter each to different thematic areas: Landscape, The Household, Trade and Exchange, Cultures and Style, Agency, and so on. In each case, a variety of approaches to that theme could be given to show how different theories contradict or complement each other and produce different sorts of explanation of the archaeological record. Alternatively, a tour could be taken through different "isms": positivism, functionalism, Marxism, structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism, materialism. These would be reasonable paths, and ones moreover that have been taken by other authors.

This book, however, tries above all to bring out the relationship between archaeological thought and wider strands of theory in intellectual and cultural life as a whole. It seeks to show how specific theoretical positions taken by individual archaeologists "make sense" within a wider context, cultural, social, and political as well as academic. This book also seeks to bring out the relationship between archaeological theory and archaeological practice more clearly than has been done in the past. The structure adopted here, of an historical approach focusing initially on the New Archaeology and reactions to it before moving on to current debates, fitted this purpose best.

I have written above that this book is a guide for "the student"; I mean the student in the broadest sense. Many practicing archaeologists employed outside the academic world have told me that they are interested in current theoretical debates, and see such debates as of potential relevance to their work. Nevertheless, many feel alienated by what they see as the unnecessary obscurity and pretentiousness that is central to the theoretical scene. I don't subscribe to such an analysis, but I have to acknowledge that it is widespread. Right or wrong, I hope that they may find that what follows is of some help.

In trying to survey many different theoretical strands, I have been torn between trying to write a "neutral," "objective" survey of different currents of thought on the one hand, and a committed polemic advancing my own views on the other. The end product lies, perhaps a little unhappily, somewhere between these extremes. On the one hand, the construction of a completely objective survey simply isn't intellectually possible; the most biased and partial views on any academic subject consistently come from those who overtly proclaim that their own position is neutral, detached, and value-free. In addition, it would be disingenuous to claim that the book is written from a disinterested viewpoint - that it is a guide pure and simple. Obviously an interest in theory goes hand-in-hand with a passionate belief in its importance, and an attachment to certain more or less controversial views within the field.

On the other hand, if we want to understand why theory is where it is today, any account of a wide diversity of intellectual positions must endeavor to be reasonably sympathetic to all parties. A survey can never be neutral, but it can make some attempt to be fair. As R.G. Collingwood pointed out in relation to the history of philosophy, most theoretical positions arise out of the perceived importance of certain contexts or issues; that is, philosophical beliefs are in part responses to particular sets of problems, and have to be understood as such rather than given an intellectual mugging. One's intellectual opponents are never all morons or charlatans to the last man and woman and one's bedfellows are rarely all exciting, first-rate scholars. Before we get carried away with such piety it must be remembered that this does not mean that certain positions are not therefore immune from criticism. A shallow...