"Processual Archaeology"

Definition: Processual Archaeology is the study of process, that is to say, investigations of the way humans do things, and the way things decay. Experimental archaeology, which focuses on studying the process of how an artifact or structure was made, is a processual study, as is site formation processes, which studies the natural and cultural processes that resulted in the way an archaeological site looks today.

Although the processualists are often criticized as omitting the social aspects of human behavior, it was the processualists who took what was essentially a study of human history (the 'cultural historical method') and re-created archaeology as the study of human behaviors. The practioners of processual archaeology include almost everybody working today, thank goodness.

The critical reaction to processualism borne in the 1990s is called post-processualism, which is only logical, but oddly enough is also extremely influential to working archaeology today.

This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.