Why is there material culture rather than nothing? Heideggerian thoughts and archaeology

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate and discuss a fundamental, ontological question which appears to have been forgotten and simplified in the discourses of contemporary archaeology. This question is, 'Why is there material culture rather than nothing?' In accordance with its purpose, and the question just put forward, this paper is quite philosophical in nature. It presents a discussion that is probably unfamiliar to most archaeologists. Despite this fact, I would encourage the reader to continue, because the actual discussion leads to further questions that are of crucial relevance both to archaeologists and to archaeology. © 2005 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.