AROL 292 Final, Spring 1998

ARGHAEOLOEY 2O2 Senior Tutorial Il Examination Date: 24 June 1998. Time: TWO hours Times 4S minutes Briefly discuss the following approaches to archaeology within their contexts: « Processual and postprocessual archaeology ¢ Interpretive archaeologies “We have always known that the world is mediated by meanings. The world is, if you like, the totality of meanings rather than of things. But things do have their reality and exercise constraints over us, and some ways of knowing them are more effective than others. An exaggerated meaning-centredness, which obscures all this, cannot be salutary.” (Ernest Gellner Interpretive anthropology. In Hodder I, Shanks M. et al. 1995 Interpretive Archaeology: Finding meaning in the past. London «New York: Routledge, p. 30) Discuss the subject of what we can know, understand and present of archaeological cultures in the light of the above quotation. Make use of material and texts you have worked on, as well as sources presented to you in class. Where would you place Hans Curvers, Chris Cumberpatch, Penelope Allison and others in terms of what they are trying to do with archareological material? Where do you stand with respect to ‘interpreting’ cultural material from the past?