Archaeology after structuralism - Ian Bapty

Archaeology has had an uneasy relationship with the theories of structuralism. Michael Foucault used archaeology as a metaphor, opposing the "history of that language" to the "archaeology of that silence". For the most part, archaeologists have preferred to leave these theories of what lies behind their methods and perceptions on one side. Recently, however, they have begun to face up to the difficult task of making the connections between the past interpretation, and the present.;The writers in this volume address the problems of archaeology. The connections are not easy to establish, as a great deal of theory seems of little relevance to the everyday practice of archaeology, and much of post-structuralism refers exclusively back to itself rather than to the more specific concerns of a historical discipline. But where the junction between post-structuralism and archaeology can be made, the results are innovative and enriching.;The post-structuralist movement is heterogeneous, and the different papers reflect the varied contributions post-structuralist thought can offer to the understanding of the past and the processes of its interpretation. Each stresses the need to be in application of ideas that have developed in other disciplines. But in the same way that new ideas have transformed the work of the archaeologists in the last 30 years, so too the conceptual interaction between archaeology and post-structuralism will have revolutionary consequences.