The paradigm concept in archaeology

Abstract

One of the most critical ideas to bridge the theoretical and historiographical domains is the paradigm concept. From Thomas Kuhn’s highly influential studies on the history and philosophy of science in the 1960s, the paradigm concept was taken up in most if not all disciplinary discourses by the late 1970s and early 1980s, archaeology included. Historically, it provided a framework within which to understand the development of disciplinary questions; theoretically, it was used to frame what were considered to be deeply incompatible philosophies of archaeology, most notably expressed in the processual-postprocessual wars of the 1980s. Now that the dust of these wars has settled however, now that we have had numerous expressions of a consensual pluralism, is the paradigm concept still useful? This paper aims to take a new look at the paradigm concept, and explore it in relation to the intersection of historiography and theoretical debate.

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