These "Thin Partitions": Bridging the Growing Divide between Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology

by Joshua Englehardt (Editor), Ivy Rieger (Editor)

Overview

These “Thin Partitions” explores the intellectual and methodological differences that separate two of the four subdisciplines within the field of anthropology: archaeology and cultural anthropology. Contributors examine the theoretical underpinnings of this separation and explore what can be gained by joining them, both in university departments and in field research.
 
In case studies highlighting the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration, contributors argue that anthropologists and archaeologists are simply not “speaking the same language” and that the division between fields undermines the field of anthropology as a whole. Scholars must bridge this gap and find ways to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration to promote the health of the anthropological discipline. By sharing data, methods, and ideas, archaeology and cultural anthropology can not only engage in more productive debates but also make research accessible to those outside academia.
 
These “Thin Partitions” gets to the heart of a well-known problem in the field of anthropology and contributes to the ongoing debate by providing concrete examples of how interdisciplinary collaboration can enhance the outcomes of anthropological research.
 
Contributors: Fredrik Fahlander, Lilia Fernández Souza, Kent Fowler, Donna Goldstein, Joseph R. Hellweg, Derek Johnson, Ashley Kistler, Vincent M. LaMotta, John Monaghan, William A. Parkinson, Paul Shankman, David Small
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607325413
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	05/15/2017
Edition description:	1
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Joshua D. Englehardt is profesor-investigador at the Centro de Estudios Arqueológicos of El Colegio de Michoacán, a CONACYT Level I National Investigator, and codirector of the Mesoamerican Corpus of Formative Period Art and Writing. He specializes in Mesoamerican archaeology and epigraphy, with a research focus on the development of Mesoamerican writing systems in the Formative period and the correlation of emerging scripts with diachronic changes in material culture. He is also the editor of Agency in Ancient Writing.
 
Ivy A. Rieger is professor-investigator of cultural anthropology at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí and received her doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder. She primarily specializes in theoretical questions related to practice, belonging, and performance among the Mixtec of Oaxaca, Mexico, where she conducts ethnographic research focusing on fiestas, ritual, memory, and identity among this indigenous group.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Introduction: Speaking the Same Language? Joshua D. Englehardt Ivy A. Rieger 3

1 Research Collaboration in Mesoamerica and the Pueblo Southwest Vincent M. LaMotta John Monaghan 29

2 "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time": The Fate of Cultural Evolution in Cultural Anthropology Paul Shankman 45

3 Ontology Matters in Archaeology and Anthropology: People, Things, and Posthumanism Fredrik Fahlander 69

4 Ethnographic Stratigraphies: Mapping Practical Exchanges Between Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology Ivy A. Rieger 87

5 Archaeological Boundaries and Anthropological Frontiers: A View from South of the Border Joshua D. Englehardt 103

6 Tribes-Chimeras or Chameleons? Kinship, Marriage, Gender, and Hierarchy in Archaeological Theory and Nuer Ethnography Joseph R. Hellweg 129

7 The Ancestral Stew Pot: Culinary Practices at a Contemporary Yucatecan Village Lilia Fernández Souza 153

8 Filling in the Blanks: Archaeology, Ethnography, and the Aj Pop B'Atz' Project Ashley Kistler 181

9 The Interface Between Anthropology and Archaeology: A View from Ancient Greece David B. Small 203

10 Given a Choice: Integrating Approaches to Choice and Wellbeing in Present and Past Societies Kent Fowler Derek Johnson 227

Conclusions: Anthropological Pasts and Futures Donna M. Goldstein 253

Conclusions: Anthropology, Archaeology, and the Legacy of Franz Boas; or, "Hello, My Name is Bill, I Am an Anthropologist. No Wait. I Am an Archaeologist. No. Wait …" William A. Parkinson 269

List of Contributors 287

Index 291

Editorial Reviews

“This book is compelling and adds a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation about the relevance of archaeology and cultural anthropology to one another. It provides not only an intellectual history of this divide but also excellent examples from both cultural anthropologists and archaeologists of the utility of the work to the other side, the ways in which we can and should collaborate, and whether the divide is even something we should be concerned about.”
—David Hoffman, Mississippi State University

"These 'Thin Partitions'... [offers] a lively debate on the future of intra- and inter-disciplinary collaboration in a twenty-first century anthropology."
—Anthropology Book Forum

From the Publisher