Anthropology and Ethnology
The basis of modern archaeology is the study of human cultures, and archaeologists have been using modern culture studies to understand how their sites were formed since the 1960s.
Drawing from both ethnographies of the past and oral history of the present, archaeologist Robert Hall provides the reader with the depth of field only obtained from years of research and contemplation of the intricacies of human culture.
The collection of essays called Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past goes a long way to discredit the notion that studying the archaeological deposits of modern day peoples is a waste of time.
The concept of the middle range theory attempts to connect the ideas of archaeology with the material culture; always easier said than done. Andrew Jones' book provdes some examples on how to make that great divide.
John Chapman's book takes a post-processual look at the Mesolithic through Copper periods of central and eastern Europe, and piques this reader's interest mightily.
This collection of articles edited by Michael Nassaney and Eric S. Johnson brings together the techniques and data from the studies of ethnohistory and archaeology to assist in the interpretation of past cultures of the North American continent.
The study of ranking and social inequality in archaeology is based on the anthropological and economic studies of Elman Service and Morton Fried.
In the last 100 years or so, archaeology shifted from a focus on past rulers and other elite persons to the study of less-fortunate people, including the relationship between slaves and their masters.
Social organization of a group includes how people interact, and archaeologists look for clues to the social organizations in artifact patterns.
To anthropologists (and many archaeologists), culture refers to the way of life of a group of people.
