Symmetrical Archaeology Michael Shanks Stanford University World Archaeology 39: 589-596 (2007) Symmetry is an epistemological and ethical principle developed in the social study of scientiic practice. This essay connects a symmetrical archaeology to major trends in the discipline since the 1960s and to key components of archaeological practice - relational ontologies, mixtures of past and present, people and things, biology and culture, individual and society. Symmetrical archaeology is a culmination of efort in archaeology to undercut these modernist dualities and to recognize the vitality of the present past. Symmetry adds new force to the claim that archaeologists have a unique perspective on human engagements with things, on social agency and constructions of contemporary identity. This paper was part of a collection in World Archaeology involving Chris Witmore, Tim Webmoor and Bjørnar Olsen discussing this principle of symmetry as part of a broader post humanist and materialist agenda in what some have called a new ontological turn. A detailed introduction to this prospect of a materialist archaeology can be found in the book Archaeology: the Discipline of Things (University of California 2012) by the four of us - https:// www.academia.edu/1234484/Archaeology_The_discipline_of_things Introduction The notion of a symmetrical archaeology is a loose one, somewhat metaphorical, even evocative. It has links with philosopher and sociologist of science David Bloor's "symmetry principle" (1976) – that philosophers', historians' and sociologists' accounts of science should be impartial with respect to the truth or falsity, rationality or irrationality, success or failure of the scientiic theories whose content is to be explained. This is to hold that the truth or rationality of "nature" (or any other object of interest such as "history") cannot speak for itself but needs representation and translation in the work of the scientist, in the process of debate around experiment, evidence and argument. A symmetrical archaeology, as we read in the accompanying papers in this journal, Shanks - Symmetrical archaeology 1