Contemporary Past, Archaeology of the

Introduction

The archaeology of the contemporary past is a new and interdisciplinary field of research that intersects with heritage studies, art, ethnography, and modern history. This kind of archaeology, as it is practiced today, was born in the late 1990s. However, its intellectual roots go further back (Harrison 2011: 144-9). While archaeologyliterally means the study of ancient things, archaeologists have always been concerned with the present, although in very different ways. During the nineteenth century, there was no clear-cut division between present and past, archaeology and anthropology, and prehistory books regularly included living societies (but always nonindustrial). This perspective soon fell into disrepute due to its inherent racism and simplistic evolutionism. From the late 1950s onward, archaeologists renewed their interest in the contemporary world through a new method – ethnoarchaeology – and a new theory: processualism. As in the previous century, it was...