Beyond processualism and postprocessualism: archaeology, complexity theory, and the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze

Abstract

The paper suggests that the politically informed complex philosophy of Gilles Deleuze can enable archaeologists to overcome the dichotomy between processualism and postprocessualism, opening the door to different kinds of archaeological thinking. His philosophy facilitates the reception and translation into the social sciences of the ideas coming from complexity theory, thanks to his realist stance and his prioritization of ontological over epistemological concerns. This move allows us to overcome the ‘symmetric turn’ and the different dichotomies underlying current archaeological thought, such as structure-process, subject-object, identity-difference, truth-value, or self-other. Finally, the paper rethinks some areas of archaeological theory through a critique of the internal and external conformation of the discipline, aiming at opening the spectrum of available interpretative frameworks.