post-processual archaeology
pohst-pros-ES-yoo-ul ar-kee-OL-oh-jee
poʊst prɒˈsɛsjuəl ˌɑːrkiˈɒlədʒiListen
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a cluster of theoretical approaches that emerged in the 1980s, associated particularly with Ian Hodder, critiquing the scientific positivism and universal laws sought by processual archaeology; post-processual archaeologists argue that interpretation is always subjective, contextual, and politically situated, and that material culture carries symbolic and ideological meanings that cannot be reduced to functional or ecological explanations; the movement brought attention to agency, identity, gender, and the social construction of knowledge in archaeological interpretation
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