SUMMARY: We discuss results of a content analysis of material culture articles in Post-Medieval Archaeology in the context of the development of historical archaeology as a discipline. We conclude that the journal remains an important outlet for detailed field reports, but in recent years, influenced by social and anthropological theories, the discipline has matured and articles have changed from antiquarian artefact presentations to contextualized material culture studies. Expansion of the journal’s temporal frame to include the recent past has so far had little effect, but the journal has benefited from the broadened international range of articles and the intellectual and theoretical backgrounds they convey.
Résumé
Nous discutons de l’analyse de contenu de la culture matérielle traitée dans des articles parus dans PMA, dans le contexte du développement de l'archéologie historique en tant que discipline. Nous concluons que le journal reste un moyen de diffusion important pour des rapports de terrain détaillés. Cependant, ces dernières années, influencée par les théories sociales et anthropologiques, la discipline a mûri et les articles ont alors évolué, passant de présentations d'artefacts anciens à des études contextualisées de la culture matérielle. L'agrandissement du cadre temporel de la revue pour prendre en compte le passé récent n'a pour l'instant pas eu trop d'impact, mais le journal a bénéficié d'un accroissement du nombre d'articles internationaux et des contextes intellectuels et théoriques qu'ils impliquent.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Beitrag diskutieren wir die Ergebnisse einer Inhaltsanalyse von Sachkultur-Artikeln der Zeitschrift „Post-Medieval Archaeology“ im Kontext der Entwicklung des Faches Historische Archäologie. Wir kommen zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Zeitschrift ein wichtiges Medium für detaillierte Grabungsberichte ist, in den vergangenen 15 Jahren allerdings unter dem Einfluss von Theorien aus Sozialwissenschaft und Anthropologie deutlich gereift ist. Seitdem haben sich Beiträge von eher antiquarischen Objektvorlagen hin zu kontextualisierten Sachkulturstudien entwickelt. Während allerdings die Ausweitung der zeitlichen Obergrenze der Zeitschrift bis hin zur jüngsten Vergangenheit bis heute mehr oder weniger wirkungslos blieb, hat die Zeitschrift deutlich von den vermehrten internationalen Beiträgen sowie den dazugehörigen intellektuellen und theoretischen Ansätzen profitiert.
Riassunti
Discutiamo i risultati dell’analisi del contenuto degli articoli sulla cultura materiale pubblicati in Post-Medieval Archaeology, contestualmente allo sviluppo dell’archeologia storica come disciplina. Giungiamo alla conclusione che la rivista resta un importante vetrina per dettagliate relazioni dei lavori sul campo, ma negli ultimi anni, grazie all’influenza delle teorie sociali e antropologiche, la disciplina è maturata e gli articoli sono cambiati, passando dall’essere presentazioni di reperti considerati di antiquariato a studi contestualizzati di cultura materiale. L’ampliamento dell’ambito cronologico della rivista, fino ad includere il passato più recente, ha finora avuto scarsi risultati, ma vi sono stati benefici dall’ampliamento internazionale nella provenienza degli articoli, e dall’apporto intellettuale e teorico che questo comporta.
Resumen
Este artículo presenta los resultados de un análisis de contenido de los artículos que sobre cultura material se han publicado en Post-Medieval Archaeology dentro del desarrollo de la arqueología histórica como disciplina. Llegamos a la conclusión de que la revista sigue siendo un medio importante donde publicar informes de campo detallados, pero se nota que la disciplina ha ido madurado en los últimos años bajo la influencia de las teorías sociales y antropológicas, y los artículos han pasado de presentar hallazgos materiales a incluir estudios de cultura material más contextualizados. La expansión del marco temporal de la revista, que ahora incluye el pasado reciente, ha tenido hasta ahora poca repercusión, pero la revista se ha beneficiado de la gama más amplia de artículos internacionales y de los antecedentes intelectuales y teóricos que éstos transmiten.
Acknowledgements
We thank Alasdair Brooks, editor of Post-Medieval Archaeology, for inviting us to contribute to the 50th anniversary issue of the journal and for generously providing us with advice and research assistance. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on how to improve upon our initial draft.
7 Hicks Citation2010, 28; Hicks & Beaudry, Citation2010a, 2–3. In the past decade, important works on material culture studies and their place in archaeology, anthropology and history were published, such as Tilley et al. Citation2006 and Hicks & Beaudry, Citation2010a.
8 For Table , we restricted consideration to the first 48 volumes of the journal because the count was made prior to the publication of Vol. 49:1 and because it seemed inappropriate once that issue appeared to treat it as if it were an entire volume. We do, however, discuss items from Vol. 49:1 in our examination of recent developments in the journal.
9 Given that the number of articles in each issue of the journal is dependent on a number of factors (e.g. number of articles ready for publication, length of articles in each issue/page length restrictions per issue, etc.) we felt that calculating overall percentages of artefact/material culture articles versus those on other topics dealt with over the journal’s history would not prove particularly helpful.
19PMA began as an annual single volume; it published two issues of each volume from 2003 to 2013 and, beginning in 2014, three issues per year, the third devoted to an overview of fieldwork and to reviews, making even more room for research articles in issues 1 and 2 of subsequent volumes.
39 See Schacht Citation2010 for a content analysis of Australasian Historical Archaeology. To our knowledge no similar analysis exists for Historical Archaeology.
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