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2021
No. (14), Ethnoarchaeology 2020
No. Nr (13), Oral History - Emotions 2019
No. (12), Public History 2018
No. (11), Cultural History of Knowledge 2017
No. (10), Anthropology – Folklore – History 2016
No. (9), Cultural Heritage 2015
No. (8), Anthropology and History 2014
No. 1 (6), Semiotics of History No. 2 (7), History and Gender 2013
No. 1 (4), On Representation No. 2 (5), Genealogies of Culture 2012
No. 2 (3), Readings of the Past No. 1 (2), Anthropology / history of the Contemporary World 2011
No. 1-2 (1), Preliminaries
ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2021, No. (14), Ethnoarchaeology

Andrzej Z. Bokiniec
Archaeology and ethnology: the difficult relationship of separated siamese sisters

Keywords: anthropology, archaeology, cultural-historical school, processualism, ethnoarchaeology, post-processualism

Abstract:
The author emphasizes the difficulty many contemporary researchers face in unequivocally defining the relationship between anthropology and archaeology. Despite numerous works that juxtapose both disciplines, their relationships are considered complex and diverse. The history of the relationship between the two fields dates back to 1881 and the publication of E.B. Tylor's "Anthropology," in which archaeology was recognized as a subdiscipline of anthropology operating within an evolutionist paradigm. In subsequent years, particularly under the influence of the cultural-historical school, archaeology began to adopt methods and techniques proposed by anthropologists. However, despite clear borrowings to this day, archaeology has never fully embraced the concepts of this school, focusing more on specific source organization techniques than generalizations. Later on, concepts such as functionalism and structuralism contributed to distancing anthropology from the study of material reality and history, limiting its usefulness in archaeology. However, processual archaeology, inspired in part by the works of L.R. Binford, led to the emergence of new research trends, such as ethnoarchaeology, which enriched archaeological analysis. Contemporary archaeology comprises a collection of various research approaches which, while seemingly broadening its thematic scope, obscure the actual picture of prehistory. Nevertheless, in serious studies based on empirical evidence, the cultural-historical method still predominates, enriched by new research techniques mainly derived from the natural sciences, suggesting that despite the variability of trends, there are certain enduring foundations of archaeological interpretation.

About Author:
ANDRZEJ Z. BOKINIEC (1961-2021) – archaeologist, ethnoarchaeologist, was an assistant professor at the Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

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