Approximate
duration (All
dates AD)
Enlightenment
Romanticist
(Positivist: descriptions and explanations
with evolutionary narratives based on
order, hierarchy, and progression)
(Relativist: interpretation and
understandings with genealogical
narratives focused on meaning , action,
growth, and descent)
Age of Myth and Legend
Folklore and tradition in tension with theological
interpretations and religious doctrine.
To 1400
European Renaissance
1450–1530
Classical revival and the addition of a time-depth
to accounts of visible features and remains.
Reformation
Finding the roots of northern peoples and
indigenous cultures detached from Rome and the
influences of the classical world.
1530–1600
Enlightenment
1600–1720
Rationalism, comparative ethnography, ‘natural
philosophy’, and the ‘Scientific Method’ shows the
breadth and depth of human cultural diversity.
Romanticism
Links made between indigenous peoples (Ancient
Britons) and the remains visible in the landscape
with appeals to emotions rather than intellect.
1720–1800
Positivism
1800–1910
Recognition of ‘facts’ and ‘laws’ (Evolution;
Stratigraphy; Uniformitarianism etc.) unaffected by
metaphysical or theological considerations.
Nationalism / Culture-History
Recognition of human cultures in time and space
coupled with diffusionism, hyper-diffusionism,
migrations, and colonization as mechanism for
change. Inductivism and functionalism.
1910–1965
Modernism / Processualism
1965–1985
Neo-evolutionism approaches to cultural systems
and models through adaptations of cybernetic
principles. Deductivism, middle range theory,
New Archaeology and Rescue Archaeology.
Post-Modernism / Post-Processualism
“New culture history” focused on the character
and nature of ‘being’ in the world. Agency, multivocal narratives, phenomenology, identity, and
gender central to ideas of intentionality, meaning,
and significance.
1985–?
?
?Scientia
Integrating sciences with the humanities for the
creation of multiple polythetic knowledges