Anthropological Archaeology

While in Russia archaeology has been tightly linked to history, archaeology in the United States has been a part of four-field anthropology.

This means that archaeological theories (systems of ideas used to explain material remains) in these countries developed along two non-intersecting trajectories. This course introduces Russian students to the main theoretical debates that shaped the discipline of archaeology in the Anglo-American scholarly tradition.

Students contextualize these debates historically in terms of wider theoretical discussions taking place within philosophy and social sciences. In addition to purely theoretical pieces, we examine a number of case studies that connect anthropological theories with material remains in the archaeological record.