Hodder's Theories And Practice In Archaeology

Hodder has endeavoured to explore the effects of non-positivistic methods in archaeology, which includes providing each excavator with the opportunity to record his or her own individual interpretation of the site. This seems to create a highly subjective reflection of the archaeological record, however, it may provide particular insight in that each contributor has total control over the specific area of work from which comes their contribution to the overall project (Fagan 1996, 385).

Hodder approaches human society through its production, consumption, and social structures in his book ‘Theories and Practice in Archaeology.’ This approach seeks to dig into the compartmentalization to which theory has been bound and provide a broad set of

So too they strive to concoct notions of the ways in which individuals within a society operated both socially, economically, and in all other socially relevant ways of interacting. To do this, one must look beyond the relevant data which are observable in themselves. In this way the archaeologist is left to her own devices when engaging such issues as symbology and others that were put forth herein. The issues arising with an understanding of the arbitrary nature of symbolism creates an issue within the positivist approach essentially rendering it useless, at least in this particular instance of creating an understanding of symbols within a culture (Hodder 1992,

Objectivity versus subjectivity may be the most simple way of putting it. The post processual researcher is concerned with the inability of the researcher to come to any truly objective conclusions in working with the archaeological record. Processualists on the other hand seem less concerned with said issue. Processualism is also criticized by Hodder for its overemphasis of materialist interpretations. Furthermore, many have come to see the approach as ethically and politically irresponsible. While Hodder may be less concerned with politics, he seems devout in his support for an ethical and objective approach in all archaeological endeavours (Salmon