The Best of!

"What Archaeological Theory Looks Like#!

!
from George Nicholas! !
Archaeological Theory "ARCH 471# Class!
Simon Fraser University!
2005$2012!
!

!
I teach the undergraduate Archaeological Theory course
each semester at SFU. The nal exercise in the course is
What Does Archaeological Theory Look Like? !
!
The students are asked to visualize archaeological theory
in a way that is meaningful to them. !
!
As you will see, their work not only reveals much about
their particular views of archaeology, but often does so in
some wonderfully creative and thoughtful ways.!
!
!
!
!
%

Debbie!

George Nicholas teaching Archeological theory

hmmm . or us learning theory?

Brock!
Kelcie!

What an archaeologist,with
no theory training,is thinking
about in the eld.!

Brock!
Kelcie!

What an
archaeologistwit
h theory training is
thinking !

Tyronne!

Clayton!

Ross!

Nicole!

Brittney!

Alannah!
Ania!

!"#$%&'()*+'
,-##.'

Mirror, Mirror
on the wall,
whos the most
theorist of them
all?

Marxism!
Dialectical!
Indigenous
archaeology!
Critical
archaeology!

To be
continued!?

Environmen
al e#ects!
Culture
History!

Feminism!

Functionism!

The answer is in
yourself
as you
Besides!
theretake
area
waythat
a little
ones
are bit
tooaway
late to
fromapple
everyone
youve
feed
with anyway.
encountered.

!"#$%&'()*+'
,-##.'

Mirror, Mirror
on the wall,
whos the most
theorist of them
all?

Tyler!

!"#$%&'%#()*+",(-".*)/"(,"*0"*')$*%&+&1()*+")&0203'245"

Ross!
Ryan!

Alex%

His rst day in Theory %

Ryan%

Aaron%

The Theoretical Spectrum

and the Culture Cone
Culture Future
!

Nonsense
!

Positivism
!

Processualism
!

Materialism
!

Post$
Processualism
!

Moderatism
!

Idealism
!

Culture History
!

Michael%

Nonsense!

Relativism
!

Tory%

Laura%

The Stratigraphy
of Archaeological
Theory.

Shannon%

The Future of
Archaeological
Theory

Archaeological
Theory Today

Indigenous
Feminist
Marxist

Symbolic/ Contextual

Post-Processual
Processual
Archaeology

Shannon Enns
Functionalism

Culture History
Antiquarianism

Kelcie%

Diana%

Hollis%

Kyla%

Phoebe%

Anonymous%

David%

David%

David%

David%

David%

Ann%

The Band!

Band
!

Tribe!

State
!

Chiefdom!
!
Circle the BEST answer:

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Evolutionism - Unilinear
Neo-Evolutionism
Diffusionism
None of the Above
Intermission Arch 471

Laurie%

Arch 471 Theory killed me.!

Just Kidding!!!!!!!

Aviva

Kitty%

Brianne%

A Student in ARCH 471 During the Last Week of Classes

!

Shane%

Joey%
!

Keyna%

Kody%

Morgan%

Steven%

Shirley%

Nicholas%

Nicole%

Liana%

Allison%

Beverley%

Note: Contact
between units is not
sharp, parts of
lower units
continue into the
next. While one
unit may be
dominated by a
particular deposit,
previous deposits
may also occur
within the unit, and
do not cease to exist
within the prole. !

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Amy%

Alisha%

Jesse%

Matt%

Mary%

Neil%

Stacey%

Annette%

Megan%

Megan%

Tabatha%

Tabatha%

Tabatha%

Mindy%

Karen%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Alyson%

Ken%

Archaeological Theory
Processual
Archaeology
Unilinear Cultural
Evolution

Culture History

Neoevolutionism
Cultural
Ecology

Lisa%

Structural
Functionalism

Post-processual
Archaeology

Chapter 3
%

April%

In which our hero reaches a turning point in his

intellectual growth.

We join little Alex as his instructor
counsels him

It was decided that Alex required further

education.%

"Digging in the dirt is

all well and good
Alex, but you!d get
much more out of it if
you had a strong
grounding in
archaeological
theory#

Little Alex eagerly awaits the rst of many

"Theory Treatments#"

"Gosh Professor, this is

gonna be FUN!#

After a few treatments, he could see that

archaeology had become a bit
"androcentric.#%

Strolling with the boys.

From left:
White, Binford, Flannery
and Clarke

It was sometimes painful to take in so

much information %
We can know
about
Human antiquity,
But it!s
complicated!
There!s no single,
true! account of
the past.
It!s all

CONTINGENT!!
AAAAAARRRRRR
GGGGHHHH!!

His education in theory complete,

little Alex sets out with new
intellectual tools with which to
decode the past!%
%

Don!t be afraid!
Come with me and
we!ll apply theory to
our research! We!ll
have oh so much fun
as we postulate
possible pasts!

Innocence lost. Wisdom gained.

%

The End.

Kate%

Sharon%

Nikki%

Louise%

Cheryl%

Archaeologist and
their different theories

Archaeological Site%

Becky%

Jordan%

Megan%

Gabrielle%

Relativism/
Positivism!
Science/
Humanity!
Feminist/Marxist/
!
Indigenous
Archaeology
!
Postprocessualism
!
Ethnoarchaeology !
Middle Range Theory
!
Processualism!
Culture
History!
Essentialism!

Ideology!
Hermeneutics!

Theory is the backbone of

archaeology!

Di#usionism
!
Antiquarianism!

Vanessa%

Anthony%
Chelsey

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Alex%
Chelsey!

Bruce Trigger and the Arch Theorists!

Across the Spatio-temporal Dimension

Also Starring: Meg Conkey as Penny Priddy and Giovanni Belzoni as Lord John Whorn !
A Bondar Production!

Ryan%

Alissa%

The Great
Boulder of
Archaeological
Theory that
will CRUSH
you for your
transgressions%

The terried archaeology

student pleads But wait!
Don t crush me! I ve
become self-critical and
won t take artefacts
without descendent
communities
permission! %

Michael%

Chelsey%

%Note spray paint cans&

!

In Disguise: My Fall 2009 Class %

My Gift T-shirt: Spring 2009%

(Students Shirt Reads: Theory Survivor with Skull and Cross-bones)%