Difference in Archaeological Theory and Practise

The programs of processual, contextual, and symmetrical archaeology have sought to inter-relate the material and the social components of community life in various ways that either prioritise or equalise their respective roles. An alternative, however is that they are inherently non-correspondent, functioning in different ways that can be both complimentary and in conflict. This session seeks a way of approaching the material past that systematically recognises the differences between textual and archaeological sources of information and incorporates the role of the friction inherent in the social world between verbal meaning, social action and the material. A systematic inquiry is required which incorporates the principle of potential non-correspondence allowing for the possibilities both of correspondence and friction and disjunction between materiality and sociality. The aim is to approach the archaeological record as a relational phenomenon derived from potential non–correspondence between the social and the material, across many spatial and temporal scales.The session will explore theoretical issues, applications and methodological extensions of the issues of material – social dissonance. The inertia of the material, costs of maintenance, the creative effects of non-correspondence and the disjunctions between textual and archaeological sources of information are explored as crucial components of the archaeological process.