The dig – is archaeology the new ethnography?
Simon BlythUnilever plc, United Kingdom
Simon RobertsIntel, Ireland
INTRODUCTION
Archaeology is the study of the human past, using stuff. (King 2005:11)
It is archaeology's use of stuff in studying, understanding and building up pictures of cultures that first drew us to it. Archaeology provides us with a practical approach to 're-instating the missing masses' (Latour 1992) in market research. We remain astonished at how market research has failed to deal with material culture. The irony of this cannot escape you: an industry that is largely concerned with the consumption...