Material Culture and Cultural Meanings: Current Studies of Archaeological Ceramics and in Ce­ramic Ethnoarchaeology

Abstract

The description and interpretation of material culture may be regarded as the essence of archaeology, a discipline that seeks to recover, describe, document, and interpret past human culture. More recently, understanding that actions occur in a material world that is constituted symbolically, archaeolOgical ex� planations are often framed in sociocultural meanings, the ana1ysis of agencies, practices and behaviors.I shall subsequently return to this issue. Because of their longevity in the archaeological record, lithic and ceramic artifacts are crucial to the endeavor to interpret human culture. Objects fashioned from clay and subjected to intentional artificial sources of heat made their initial appearance in the archaeological record more than 26.000 years ago. Ceramic objects have been created in a seemingly endless variety of shapes and forms, varying from fertility figurines. to cooking and food storage vessels. lamps, smoldng pipes, medicinal pastilles, tokens, beehives, and coffins to modem whitewares and pyroceramics. there fore, ceramics are one of the most tangible products of human culture and are relatively widespread -25-DOI: http://dx