Thinking Through Living: Experience and the Production of Archaeological Knowledge

Abstract

As archaeologists, we tend to forget the extent to which our everyday experiences frame our potential understandings of past cultures. Instead of being taken for granted, such experiences need to be explored so that we may more fully acknowledge how our own pasts have an eminent role in the production of archaeological knowledge, from the methods through which we recover and record our data to the kinds of investigations we deem worthy of effort. While our decisions and thought processes are readily recognized to have had genesis in the archaeological and theoretical approaches which came before, an entire body of cultural and experiential knowledge remains ignored. In the interest of addressing this disparity, meticulous reflexive investigations of the day-to-day world of the individual archaeologist can be used to provide insights into the less formal factors informing research trajectories, by providing alternative viewpoints and bringing hidden components of experience to light. This paper discusses a critical thinking exercise which examines the utility of deep descriptions of contemporary commonplace experiences, employing a variety of media and documentation techniques, in assessing our interpretations of the past. A case study of ‘The Virtual Pub Project’ illustrates the practical application of this approach.