Guy Gibbon on “How Should Archaeologists Study the Past? A Minnesota Example”

Thursday, November 21, 2013 at 6pm  in the John B. Davis Lecture Hall in the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center at Macalester College

A common misconception among nonprofessionals interested in archaeology is that archaeology is archaeology is archaeology – that is, that all archaeologists do the same things for the same reasons. Using arguments in his two most recent books, Archaeology of Minnesota: The Prehistory of the Upper Mississippi River Region (2012) and Critically Reading the Theory and Methods of Archaeology: An Introductory Guide (2013), Professor Gibbon (now emeritus) will discuss different ways in which archaeologists approach the study of the past and how the selection of one or another approach results in a quite different reading of the past. The majority of illustrations trace changing Native American lifeways in Minnesota before historic contact from the perspective of an approach called processual archaeology.

Guy Gibbon, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Minnesota,  reconstructs the social, economic, and political systems—the lifeways—of those who inhabited what we now call Minnesota for thousands of years before the first contact between native peoples and Europeans. Gibbon shows how the study of Minnesota archaeology is relevant to a broader understanding of long-term patterns of change in human development throughout the world. Gibbon is the author or editor of several books, including Archaeology of Minnesota: The Prehistory of the Upper Mississippi River Region (2012) and Critically Reading the Theory and Methods of Archaeology: An Introductory Guide (2013).

A no-host dinner open to AIA members with the speaker will follow the lecture at Pad Thai Grand Restaurant, 1681 Grand Avenue, St. Paul

Parking and venue information is below and please also note that it is fine to park in Macalester lots for this event.
http://www.macalester.edu/about/maps/