Ian Hodder

Ian Richard Hodder (born 1948) is a British archaeologist and pioneer of postprocessualist theory in archaeology.

Quotes

To The Trowel's Edge (Exchange)

To The Trowel's Edge (Exchange)

• I think that it is wrong that Archaeology should be located within Anthropology because archaeologists have equally strong links to History and the natural sciences.

• One of the things I thought was very important during the 1980s was the idea that culture is meaningfully constituted. I still think that is right. But now, I put the emphasis on the "meaningful constitution"rather than the "cultural"bit. I have had arguments with my colleagues in Stanford about this. I take the view that culture is not a helpful term. It tends to be reifying and dangerous. I prefer to break it down and talk about the various processes that constitute it.

• ...In the contemporary world, it is worrying trying to create cultural groups, because it is always motivated from an interest-position. Trying to define cultures in the past is always, as we know, part of a motivated attempt to find one's nostalgic origins or to create a sense of continuity.