In archaeology, phenomenology is the application of sensory experiences to view and interpret an archaeological site or cultural landscape in the past. It views space as socially produced and is concerned with the ways people experience and understand spaces, places, and landscapes. Phenomenology became a part of the Post-processual archaeology movement in the early 1990s and was a reaction to Processual archaeology's proposed 'scientific' treatment of space as an abstract and empty locus for action.[1] In contrast, phenomenology proposes a 'humanized' space which is embedded with meaning and is created through praxis (actions, rituals, social events, and relationships between people and places).[2] Phenomenology therefore treats the landscape as a network of places, each of which bears meaning and is connected through movements and narratives.
Phenomenological approaches have been the subject of much debate within archaeology,[3] with critics saying the methods are unscientific, subjective, and require an assumption that modern human experiences of a landscape approximate the experiences those of people in the past. Others, however, have found the framework useful in analyses using Geographical Information Systems and Virtual Reality Modeling, despite early phenomenologists in archaeology rejecting these representations in favor of embodied experiences.[4][5]