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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology pp 1–15Cite as

Symmetrical Archaeology

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Introduction

If archaeology is the study of things with an aim to understand pasts and their relevance for life, then the addition of the adjectival qualifier “symmetrical” constituted a provisional step to help render it so. With its popular definition as “the study of the human past through its material remains,” archaeology relegates its objects to the subordinate position of means and bestows upon its ends a spurious precedence, ultimately denying those throngs of ceramic fragments, hand axes, wall foundations, buried road surfaces, or rusty sardine cans their role as protagonists. Without things, any understanding of past worlds would be impossible (Olsen et al. 2012). And yet, the common definition of archaeology limits its objects to the status of mere vehicles. Symptomatic of this overly reductive, end-oriented (telocentric) definition are a series of compulsory disclaimers, sounded throughout the field’s history, to remind practitioners of the need to reach beyond the thing...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Christopher Witmore

Authors
  1. Christopher Witmore
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Correspondence to Christopher Witmore .

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Jordan Ralph

  2. Honors College, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    Troy Lovata Ph.D.

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Witmore, C. (2019). Symmetrical Archaeology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2708-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_2708-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1

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