Abstract

The archaeological record of South Asia's rich and diverse past has been largely dominated by interpretational frameworks, which have the construction of culture histories as their core, if not their end. Normative and conservative understandings of culture implicit in the culture-history paradigm have resulted in the construction of static archaeological cultures coterminous with ethnolinguistic communities, races or 'peoples' from material culture trait lists. An understanding of culture that recognizes its contingent, dynamic, and categorical nature is required in order to approach the complex and unique sets of historical circumstances and relationships that have shaped South Asia's past. Articles in this volume present new research and perspectives that pose a variety of new questions about the organization of social, political, and economic processes that push beyond the epistemic limitations of the culture-history foundations of South Asian archaeology.

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