Phenomenological excavation of archaeological cognition or how to hunt mammoth

Lester Embree

pp. 377-395

in: Timothy J. Stapleton (ed), The question of hermeneutics, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

Archaeology is a science, specifically a cultural science, and subspecifically an historical science. It is devoted to the objective description and explanation of long term continuity and change in what are best called human worlds. Archaeologists often say they seek to account for lifeways, but speaking of worlds will help keep it remembered that it is not just this or that pattern of behavior but the entirety of manners in which people in a society individually and collectively relate in all mental and physical ways to one another and to their animal, vegetable, and mineral surroundings that is the theme of archaeological inquiry. Archaeology is part of cultural anthropology.