Negotiating the archaeology of destiny

Abstract

The concept of `destiny' is perhaps irrelevant to much of modern thinking in Western Europe and North America and hence fails to enter archaeological vocabulary. This is potentially an omission of consequence, for social psychology indicates that the belief that life is beyond the control of human agency can be a powerful one. Drawing upon ethnographic and archaeological data from the Tallensi of Northern Ghana, the potential resonance of `destiny' in archaeological interpretation is explored with reference to some examples of deposition from later British prehistory.