German Ethnoarchaeological Traditions from a Theoretical and Conceptual Viewpoint: Past and Present

Abstract

Prehistoric archaeology evolved under the strong influence of the emerging discipline of ethnology. This is evident in the so-called “Pfahlbauforschung” and in the role played by the Societies of Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory in Berlin and Vienna in the second half of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the twentieth century a change in paradigm, under the influence of G. Kossinna, together with the term “archaeological culture”, led to the comparison of human cultures worldwide as a means to explain archaeological finds and features, by classifying cultures according to the interpretation of cultural influences or migrations within Europe. The “Wiener Schule” and ethnohistory influenced archaeological teaching and research under K. Narr and others. In the eastern part of Germany, the introduction of historical materialism in archaeology aimed at providing a focal point for both archaeology and ethnology (for example, the work of K.-H. Otto). Mainly under the influence of Soviet research, initially under the impact of Stalinism, five stages in the evolution of society were assumed, of which the first stage was primeval society/early communism (“Urgesellschaft”/“Urkommunismus”). Archaeology and ethnology were seen as the main pillars in the interdisciplinary research of pre- and protohistory. In the 1990s, some archaeologists from German-speaking countries explicitly applied an ethnoarchaeological approach (AG Ethnoarchäologie), which had developed decades earlier in Anglo-American research. This somewhat narrow view was widened later by including a cultural anthropological approach in theoretical archaeology (for instance, that taken by M. K. H. Eggert).