Discussion

In simplistic terms, three basic anthropological conceptions of culture can be identified. Culture is ideational (normative theory); culture is an adaptive system; and culture is historically contingent and relative. Perusal of the glossaries in 15 introductory archaeology textbooks published over the past 30 years (all most recent editions, no repetition of authors) reveals the following. Six books give a normative definition of culture; four books give a ‘culture is an adaptation’ definition; only one gives forms of both the normative and the adaptation definitions and underscores that the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The remaining four books define culture as something uniquely human. Only six of the 15 books mention material culture, and they simply define the term as artifacts.

Early editions of introductory archaeology textbooks tend to state that archaeology is prehistoric ethnography or the study of prehistoric cultures. More recent, advanced discussions of archaeological method and theory tend to refer to ‘social theory’ rather than ‘culture theory’. This change in terminology reflects a concern for a humanistic archaeology rather than the (allegedly) dehumanizing ‘scientific’ archaeology of the 1960s through 1980s. The change is more than simplistic, however. It involves many changes in cultural theory that can perhaps be reduced to one general kind of change. Previously, culture was something that was learned and passively participated in by humans. Now, humans are conceived of as the active creators of culture, and culture is created and recreated in different social settings in slightly different forms. Thus, ‘social theory’ is today seen by some as in many ways a much more appropriate term for explanatory models and concepts used by both anthropologists and archaeologists than is ‘culture theory.’