Two cultures: thought and practice in British and North American archaeology

Abstract

Despite historical and linguistic connections, archaeology in North America and archaeology in Britain are alienated by a curious mixture of provincialism and mutual indifference. This estrangement is part of a larger cultural alienation that was decades in the making. Field methods and practice and academic organization of the discipline differ in ways that variously favor both regions. Yet, in other respects, British and North American archaeology share a cosmopolitan attraction to glamorous foreign places, a fondness that converged in recent years on China. Ironically, this shared worldliness does not extend to each one's serious contemplation of the other.

Keywords:

• Estrangement
• academic organization
• RAE
• China

Notes

Michael Shott has worked for more than twenty-five years on the prehistory of Midwestern North America, on hunter-gatherer archaeology, and on how the archaeological record formed. He teaches at the University of Northern Iowa in Iowa, USA.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michael J Shott

Michael Shott has worked for more than twenty-five years on the prehistory of Midwestern North America, on hunter-gatherer archaeology, and on how the archaeological record formed. He teaches at the University of Northern Iowa in Iowa, USA.