西方考古学文化概念的演变

The Culture Concept Evolution of the Archaeology in West

文化概念在西方考古学一个多世纪的发展历史,经历了一个从无到有,再到被扬弃的变化过程。在当代西方考古学中,"文化"已经不再是一个很重要的词汇。"风格"(style),"认同"(identity),"族群"(ethnicity)等概念成为西方考古学者分析考古材料区域特征的主要术语。这些术语被用来探讨物质文化所反映的区域差异和社会界限。与欧美考古学相比,中国考古学界虽然有关于文化因素分析的探讨,对文化概念本身基本上没有太多的争论,并完全错过了西方考古学过去三十年来有关风格的大讨论。西方考古学界对文化概念的扬弃过程值得中国考古界深思。

From the absence to the dominance and then being abandoned, the concept of culture in Western archaeology has undergone a tremendous transformation process over the pasl century. ＂Culture＂ is no longer a critical concept in contemporary Western archaeology. Style, identity and ethnicity have become the focal concepts for archaeologists to study the regional variations in material cultures and their representation of social boundary. In comparison, despite the fact that there has been a discussion of identifying cultural elements in archaeological cuhures, Chinese arc, haeologists do not have any debates on the concept of culture, nor do they pay any attentions on the discussions of style in Western archaeology. The transformation process of culture concept in Western archaeology should be treated seriously by Chinese archaeologists.