The narrative and rhetoric of material culture sequences

Bibliographic Data

ID3918864
AuthorsI Hodder (0000-0002-7018-586X, University of Cambridge, corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume25
Issue2
Pages268-282
Publication date1993-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.1993.9980243
OpenAlexW2064304755
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited14

Archaeological periodization constructs narratives with beginnings, middles and ends. But the material culture on which such narratives are built is also involved in narratives according to which past agents lived their lives. According to Ricoeur, such lived narratives are also related to agents' practical experience of time. As archaeologists we have to 'read' past narratives through the rhetoric by which they were expressed. While Hayden White's scheme for temporal cycles of rhetoric is rejected, the sequence of material culture at Sitagroi is examined in order to explore the relationships between the plots written by archaeologists and those lived by past agents at the site. Past and present concepts of time are embedded in different narratives and expressed through different rhetorics, but some interaction between the two is possible

Periodization · Sequence (biology · White (mutation · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology