Central to any understanding of the significance of material objects, whether contemporary or prehistoric, is a discussion of the very nature of interpretation itself: how we 'read' artefacts and inscribe them into the present. This book examines the complex relations between material culture, social structures and social practices from structuralist, hermeneutical and post-structuralist viewpoints.

Christopher Tilly is Lecturer in Archaeology at St. David's University College, Lampeter, and was formerly Lecturer in Anthropology at University College, London. He is the author of several books, most recently (with Michael Shanks) Social Theory and Archaeology (1987) and (with Daniel Miller and Michael Rowlands) Domination and Resistance (1989).