Archäologie der Praktiken

Abstract

This contribution outlines the theory and method of an “archaeology of practice”. “Practice” is an increasingly used term in German-language archaeology, but the concept has so far seen very little reflection. Understood as an analytical framework and developed into a set of archaeological methods for the investigation of practice, an “archaeology of practice” not only opens a new and fresh perspective on analyses of the past but also enriches our efforts at investigating contemporary societies through archaeological means. On the one hand, then, this has the potential to replace older analytical units long established in archaeology, such as “culture”, “period”, or “society”, while on the other hand enabling archaeology to reposition itself within the canon of the social sciences and humanities.