Ethnoarchaeology and undefined investigations

The historical archaeology of Foucault and the ethnnomethodology of Garkinkel and Sacks may be regarded as rather different traditions in sociocultural inquiry, and for human geography, but there are arguably a number of distinctive points of overlap. In this paper, and following the example of McHoul's consideration of the affinities between Foucault and Garfinkel, we explore these overlaps, paying particular attention to what Foucault, Garfinkel, Sacks, and others have to say about both 'local rules' as opposed to 'transcendent laws' and the prioritising of 'surfaces' over 'depths'. In so doing a window is opened on the possibilities for an 'ethnoarchaeological' human geography inspired by both traditions, not as a definitive answer to the question 'what next' in the discipline but as another lens through which ongoing manoeuvres might be viewed.