Definition: Cognitive archaeology is a theoretical underpinning of archaeological research that is interested in the material expression of human ways of thinking about things, such as gender, class, status, kinship. This is a relatively new movement in archaeology, probably started as a reaction to the dry positivism of processual archaeology, and related to the post-processual movement.
Archaeologists associated with cognitive archaeology include James Deetz and Robert Bednarik; but there are lots of others.
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Subdisciplines of Archaeology, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
