Historical Archaeology and the Importance of Material Things II

In this volume, various archaeologists offer their analyses and ideas on the importance of material things and the ways in which historical archaeology allows us to see the past differently, and sometimes see a different past. While the field has changed dramatically over the past 35 years, two of the most prominent areas of change are evident herein. First, our scale of analysis has expanded from sites to landscapes, from structures to systems, and from artifact typology to material culture's role in expressing beliefs and identity. The historical archaeologists in this volume examine the complex interplay of people, places, and things and base their analysis on the sum of the parts. As a result, all of the papers employ comparison to understand and interpret the meanings of different social spaces in the same setting, as well as to compare and contrast different places and societies. The second evident change is that our discipline is now global in scope.