Introduction: Evidence-based practice versus Ivory Tower careers

Summary

As contract firms have become employers for the majority of archaeologists, evidence-based practice is demanded. Universities have responded by creating contract programs separate from traditional doctoral tracks. Some glorify theory construction, some others—where some of our presenters are affiliated—are responding to mandated public involvement by encouraging faculty and students to seek to work with local and descendant communities. Action archaeology, Kleindienst and Watson called it in 1956, when they were grad students in Sol Tax’s department in Chicago. Theory, that is, hypotheses and interpretations, gets tested not in laboratory-like controlled projects but in confrontation with stakeholders, descendants, and not least, all the data a site vouchsafes. Archaeologists who have engaged with communities, particularly non-Western societies, often find inference to the best explanation greatly expanded and enriched by premises and experiences outside Western Enlightenment tradition. This broadened interpretive base reflects the postcolonial standpoint. We believe the YouTube video mocking the best-known theorists is a sign that the hollow Sound of Theory can no longer command all academic programs, much less most practicing archaeologists. The musics of many folk sound instead.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Sound of Theory

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