New Insights at the Intersection of Historical Archaeology and the Archaeology of Religion

Summary

An increasing number of archaeologists are arguing against the separation of ritual and religion as separate fields of study, favoring pragmatic combinations of theoretical criteria to advance more holistic understandings of the theory and practice of religion. Advancements in the archaeological study of religion have been spearheaded by archaeologists of ancient and pre-historic societies. In this paper, I will outline the potential contributions of historical archaeology to anthropological understandings of religion. This includes the robust use of multiples lines of evidence, community oriented archaeological practice, and post-colonially informed analyses of agentive practices and the formation of shared identities. In addition to examining recent interactions between historical archaeology and the study of religion, this talk will suggest a groundwork for developing a historical archaeology of religion, and in turn, what the study of religion can contribute to historical archaeology from the perspective of identity practice and social theory.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Directions in Historical Archaeology: Theory, Method, and Practice   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage