Ian Hodder
Ian Hodder
Ian Richard Hodder is a British archaeologist and academic, noted as a pioneer of post-processual archaeological theory and for his long-term excavation and research at Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He is Dunlevie Family Professor Emeritus at the Stanford University Department of Anthropology and a professor (part-time) in the Archaeology and History of Art Department at Koç University in Istanbul.
"...In the contemporary world, it is worrying trying to create cultural groups, because it is always motivated from an interest-position. Trying to define cultures in the past is always, as we know, part of a motivated attempt to find ones nostalgic origins or to create a sense of continuity."
"I think that it is wrong that Archaeology should be located within Anthropology because archaeologists have equally strong links to History and the natural sciences."
"One of the things I thought was very important during the 1980s was the idea that culture is meaningfully constituted. I still think that is right. But now, I put the emphasis on the "meaningful constitution"rather than the "cultural"bit. I have had arguments with my colleagues in Stanford about this. I take the view that culture is not a helpful term. It tends to be reifying and dangerous. I prefer to break it down and talk about the various processes that constitute it."
