Full Description
In studying the past, archaeologists have focused on the material remains of our ancestors. Prehistorians generally have only artifacts to study and rely on the diverse material record for their understanding of past societies and their behavior. Those involved in studying historically documented cultures not only have extensive material remains but also contemporary texts, images, and a range of investigative technologies to enable them to build a broader and more reflexive picture of how past societies, communities, and individuals operated and behaved. Increasingly, historical archaeology refers not to a particular period, place, or a method, but rather an approach that interrogates the tensions between artifacts and texts irrespective of context. In short, historical archaeology provides direct evidence for how humans have shaped the world we live in today.
Historical archaeology is a branch of global archaeology that has grown in the last 40 years from its North American base into an increasingly global community of archaeologists each studying their area of the world in a historical context. Where historical archaeology started as part of the study of the post-Columbian societies of the United States and Canada, it has now expanded to interface with the post-medieval archaeologies of Europe and the diverse post-imperial experiences of Africa, Latin America, and Australasia.
The 36 essays in the International Handbook of Historical Archaeology have been specially commissioned from the leading researchers in their fields, creating a wide-ranging digest of the increasingly global field of historical archaeology. The volume is divided into two sections, the first reviewing the key themes, issues, and approaches of historical archaeology today, and the second containing a series of case studies charting the development and current state of historical archaeological practice around the world. This key reference work captures the energy and diversity of this global discipline today.
Contents
Section 1 Themes Issues and Approaches.- A North American Perspective on Race and Class in Historical Archaeology.- Ethical Issues in Historical Archaeology.- Colonies, Colonialism, and Cultural Entanglement: The Archaeology of Postcolumbian Intercultural Relations.- Landscape Approaches in Historical Archaeology: The Archaeology of Places.- Historical Archaeology and the Environment: A North American Perspective.- An Update on Zooarchaeology and Historical Archaeology: Progress and Prospects.- Going, Going, Gone: Underwater Cultural Resources in Decline.- Preparing for an Afterlife on Earth: The Transformation of Mortuary Behavior in Nineteenth-Century North America.- Making Historical Archaeology Postcolonial.- The Current State and Future Prospects of Theory in European Post-Medieval Archaeology.- Beyond Consumption: Toward an Archaeology of Consumerism.- Artifacts and Personal Identity.- Darwinism and Historical Archaeology.- World-Systems Theory, Networks, and Modern-World Archaeology.- Wholes, Halves, and Vacant Quarters: Ethnohistory and the Historical Method.- Industrial Archaeology.- Studying the Archaeology of War: A Model Based on the Investigation of Frontier Military Sites in the American Trans-Mississippi West.- Men-Women and Children: Gender and the Structuring of Historical Archaeology.- Interpretive Historical Archaeologies.- Asian American Studies in Historical Archaeology.- Section 2 Historical Archaeology on a Global Scale.- Family Resemblances: A Brief Overview of History, Anthropology, and Historical Archaeology in the United States.- The Archaeology of La Florida.- Historical Archaeology in South America.- Historical Archaeology in Central and Northern Mesoamerica: Development and Current Status.- Historical Archaeology in Yucatan and CentralAmerica.- Archaeologies of the African Diaspora: Brazil, Cuba, and the United States.- On the Fringes of New Spain: The Northern Borderlands and the Pacific.- Exploration, Exploitation, Expansion, and Settlement: Historical Archaeology in Canada.- An Embarrassment of Riches? Post-Medieval Archaeology in Northern and Central Europe.- The Development of Post-Medieval Archaeology in Britain: A Historical Perspective.- The Practice and Substance of Historical Archaeology in Sub-Saharan Africa.- A Sea of Diversity: Historical Archaeology in the Caribbean.- French Colonial Archaeology.- Natives and Newcomers in the Antipodes: Historical Archaeology in Australia and New Zealand.- Above and Beyond Ancient Mounds: The Archaeology of the Modern Periods in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean.
