Info

THE FUTURE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

edited by Gary M. Feinman, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, and T. Douglas Price, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

In recent decades an expanding cadre of archaeologists has embarked to the field and laboratories. Their endeavors have sparked the collection of troves of data about worldwide pasts at multiple scales from the molecular to the macroregional. Investigation has been amplified by new technologies including computers, satellite imagery, mass spectrometry, and sequencers for ancient DNA.

As information-rich findings are rapidly being deciphered, it is clear that the temporal depth and global breadth of archaeological discoveries are sufficiently rich to inform us regarding key contemporary issues—sustainability, inequality, governance, well-being, and heritage.

Ernest Hooten once described archaeologists as “the senile playboys of science rooting in the rubbish heaps of antiquity.” Although Hooten’s view of archaeology as an esoteric discipline remains intact in some quarters, clearly times have changed—and in this volume a diverse suite of archaeologists marshal their thoughts regarding the current state and future of the discipline.

CONTENTS

Introduction
Gary M. Feinman

I. DIVERSTY ACROSS REGIONS

Chiefdoms from the Beginnings Until Now
Jennifer Birch

Chiefdoms in Evolutionary Perspective
Shadreck Chrikure

From the Past to the Future: Native American Archaeology in Eastern North America
Victor D. Thompson

Dynamic Environments and The Human Niche
Seth Quintus

Archaeologies of Cooperation and Collective Action
David M. Carballo

II. NEW METHODOLOGICAL LENSES

Bioarchaeology: Skeletons to Past Life Experiences
George R. Milner and Jesper L. Boldsen

Toward a Post-Paradigmatic Archaeology
Kristian Kristiansen

“Not Only Outer”: Futures in the Archaeology of Religion
Robert S. Weiner

Network Thinking and Anti-Categorical Archaeology
Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

III. CONCEPTUAL IMPLICATIONS

Scales of Scientific Interaction: The New Integrative Archaeology
Johannes Müller

Shaping Archaeology’s Future: The European Association of Archaeologists
Eszter Banffy

Taking the Pulse in Classical Archaeology
Susan E. Alcock

IV. INFRASTRUCTURAL CHANGES

The Future of Publishing in Academic Archaeology
Mark Aldenderfer

The Relevance of the Past: Reconfiguring Archaeology and Modernity
Gary M. Feinman

About the Editors

ISBN 979-8-9912264-9-3/paperback/194 pages/illus./est. September 2025/$32.95

Click image to view cover