Archaeological Invisibility & Forgotten Knowledge. Ethnoarchaeology

Location: Lódz, Poland
Period: 5. - 8. September 2007

Hunter-gatherer ethnoarchaeology represents an indispensable tool for exploring this invisible web and for breaking down archaeological theoretical barriers to gain an insight into the logic and dynamics of societies very different from our own.
Bypassing rigid archaeological theory and postprocessual interpretation sometimes disconnected from ethnic reality.
The conference will focus on recent and historical observations from small-scale cultures similar to those who created the archaeological record.
Archaeology is the material embodiment of people's past behaviour; the insights gained from ethnoarchaeology therefore have the potential  to be complimented by corresponding insights from cognitive archaeology concerning the processes involved in cultural understanding.
Forgotten knowledge can be found not only in living communities but also in the many hundreds of ethnographies that were written in the 19th and early 20th century in places as far distant as Siberia and Tasmania.
Many of these lie unused and gathering dust in remote corners of libraries today often in non-mainstream languages.
This forgotten knowledge could be exceptionally valuable but is largely not included as part of modern critical analysis or debate.

Read about the program

Registration

'Archaeological Invisibility' att. Dr. Lucyna Domanska,
Institute of Archaeology,
University of Lodz,
96 Pomorska Street
91-402, Lodz,
Poland.
Fax: +48 42 665 54 27
E-mail: ethnoarch@gmail.com

Further information: http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/invisibility.php