Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (328 page)

A ‘pure type’, constructed by emphasizing certain traits of a given social entity which do not necessarily exist anywhere in reality.

 
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The theoretical position that phenomena and events exist only in so far as they are perceived as ideas. The idealist believes that thoughts are prior to actions, and that the mental or cognitive world is more important than the material world. In
COLLINGWOOD'S
notion of historical idealism the key to interpretation of the past was empathetically to rethink the thoughts of past peoples.

 
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1
The use of material culture to aid understanding of the definition and status of individuals and groups in the past. Such studies include the recognition of gender, rank, status, or place within society at the individual level, but may also look more widely at the relationships between contemporary cultures and the extent to which material culture is used to signal differences between social groups.
2
The way in which achaeological remains are widely used in order to promote and support particular views of contemporary personal, local, regional, and national identity, especially through the application of
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
, the deployment of public funds, and state legislation. In this sense archaeology is an extremely powerful political tool, and has been for many generations.

 
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The belief system, true or untrue, shared by members of a society or a subgroup within a society. Adherence to the belief system is an obligation of membership of the society or subculture. There are many ways in which ideologies can be identified. They may refer to a set of ideas held by a group of people, to ideas about social reality which are false (false consciousness), or to ideas, knowledges, or practices which result in the reproduction of social relationships characterized by inequality or contradiction. Following Marx , ideology serves to legitimate or mask the real state of social relations. It is thus a key concept in exploring patterning in the archaeological record on a number of different scales, and has become a major theme in the field of
SOCIAL ARCHAEOLOGY
.

 
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1
Term used to describe a form of writing in which the signs or characters represent ideas. Ideographic writing may use either crude pictures copied from nature (pictograph) or symbols derived from pictures which express objects or ideas.
2
Particularistic; unique; specific as opposed to general.

 
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See
AVIENUS
.

 
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