Perspectives from a Human-centred Archaeology
Author: Helene Wilhelmson
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 471
ISBN-13: 9789188473332
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The Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Plastics
Author: Genevieve Godin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2024-09-17
Total Pages: 800
ISBN-13: 1040108814
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Routledge Handbook of Archaeology and Plastics investigates the archaeology of the contemporary world through the lens of its most distinguishing and problematic material. Plastics are ubiquitous and have been so for nearly three generations since they became widely used in the early 1950s. Plastics will persist for millennia, their legacies as toxic heritage being felt deep into the future. In this book – comprising 32 original, at times disturbing, and critically engaged contributions – scholars from archaeology and other cognate disciplines explore plastics from a number of different angles and perspectives. Together these contributions highlight the dilemma that plastics present: their usefulness on the one hand, and the threats they present to environmental health on the other. The volume also explores the lessons that archaeologists can learn from plastics, about episodes of mass production, consumption and toxicity in the past, and also – importantly – about the future. This important and timely collection will therefore be of interest to all archaeologists irrespective of their period of study, or their geographical focus, and to students of archaeology and cultural heritage. It will also be relevant for researchers and students in other fields of study that focus on plastics and their environmental and social impacts. Ultimately, this book concerns the contemporary world and the impact of people upon it, through the archaeological lens.
Agency Uncovered: Archaeological Perspectives on Social Agency Power and Being Human
Author: Andrew Gardner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2012-12-06
Total Pages: 473
ISBN-13: 1135428131
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book questions the value of the concept of 'agency', a term used in sociological and philosophical literature to refer to individual free will in archaeology. On the one hand it has been argued that previous generations of archaeologists, in explaining social change in terms of structural or environmental conditions, have lost sight of the 'real people' and reduced them to passive cultural pawns, on the other, introducing the concept of agency to counteract this can be said to perpetuate a modern, Western view of the autonomous individual who is free from social constraints. This book discusses the balance between these two opposites, using a range of archaeological and historical case studies, including European and Asian prehistory, classical Greece and Rome, the Inka and other Andean cultures. While focusing on the relevance of 'agency' theory to archaeological interpretation and using it to create more diverse and open-ended accounts of ancient cultures, the authors also address the contemporary political and ethical implications of what is essentially a debate about the definition of human nature.
The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology
Author: Charles E. Orser, Jr.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-07-26
Total Pages: 1039
ISBN-13: 1351786245
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology is a multi-authored compendium of articles on specific topics of interest to today’s historical archaeologists, offering perspectives on the current state of research and collectively outlining future directions for the field. The broad range of topics covered in this volume allows for specificity within individual chapters, while building to a cumulative overview of the field of historical archaeology as it stands, and where it could go next. Archaeological research is discussed in the context of current sociological concerns, different approaches and techniques are assessed, and potential advances are posited. This is a comprehensive treatment of the sub-discipline, engaging key contemporary debates, and providing a series of specially-commissioned geographical overviews to complement the more theoretical explorations. This book is designed to offer a starting point for students who may wish to pursue particular topics in more depth, as well as for non-archaeologists who have an interest in historical archaeology. Archaeologists, historians, preservationists, and all scholars interested in the role historical archaeology plays in illuminating daily life during the past five centuries will find this volume engaging and enlightening.
Theory in Archaeology
Author: Peter J. Ucko
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-08-10
Total Pages: 413
ISBN-13: 113484347X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA unique volume that brings together contributors from all over the world to provide the first truly global perspective on archaeological theory, and tackle the crucial questions facing archaeology in the 1990s. Can one practice without theory?
Perspectives on Paradata
Author: Isto Huvila
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published:
Total Pages: 268
ISBN-13: 303153946X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMobility and Pottery Production
Author: Caroline Heitz
Publisher:
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9789088904615
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book combines findings from archaeology and anthropology on the making, use and distribution of hand-made pottery, the rhythms of mobility involved and the transformations triggered by such processes, discussing different theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.
Entangled
Author: Ian Hodder
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2012-05-08
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13: 0470672129
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA powerful and innovative argument that explores the complexity of the human relationship with material things, demonstrating how humans and societies are entrapped into the maintenance and sustaining of material worlds Argues that the interrelationship of humans and things is a defining characteristic of human history and culture Offers a nuanced argument that values the physical processes of things without succumbing to materialism Discusses historical and modern examples, using evolutionary theory to show how long-standing entanglements are irreversible and increase in scale and complexity over time Integrates aspects of a diverse array of contemporary theories in archaeology and related natural and biological sciences Provides a critical review of many of the key contemporary perspectives from materiality, material culture studies and phenomenology to evolutionary theory, behavioral archaeology, cognitive archaeology, human behavioral ecology, Actor Network Theory and complexity theory
Romans and Barbarians Beyond the Frontiers
Author: Sergio Gonzalez Sanchez
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2017-03-31
Total Pages: 176
ISBN-13: 1785706071
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis first thematic volume of the new series TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology brings renowned international experts to discuss different aspects of interactions between Romans and ‘barbarians’ in the north-western regions of Europe. Northern Europe has become an interesting arena of academic debate around the topics of Roman imperialism and Roman:‘barbarian’ interactions, as these areas comprised Roman provincial territories, the northern frontier system of the Roman Empire (limes), the vorlimes (or buffer zone), and the distant barbaricum. This area is, today, host to several modern European nations with very different historical and academic discourses on their Roman past, a factor in the recent tendency towards the fragmentation of approaches and the application of post-colonial theories that have favoured the advent of a varied range of theoretical alternatives. Case studies presented here span across disciplines and territories, from American anthropological studies on transcultural discourse and provincial organization in Gaul, to historical approaches to the propagandistic use of the limes in the early 20th century German empire; from Danish research on warrior identities and Roman-Scandinavian relations, to innovative ideas on culture contact in Roman Ireland; and from new views on Romano-Germanic relations in Central European Barbaricum, to a British comparative exercise on frontier cultures. The volume is framed by a brilliant theoretical introduction by Prof. Richard Hingley and a comprehensive concluding discussion by Prof. David Mattingly.
An Archaeology of Skill
Author: Maikel H.G. Kuijpers
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-08-03
Total Pages: 438
ISBN-13: 1351765809
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMaterial is the mother of innovation and it is through skill that innovations are brought about. This core thesis that is developed in this book identifies skill as the linchpin of – and missing link between – studies on craft, creativity, innovation, and material culture. Through a detailed study of early bronze age axes the question is tackled of what it involves to be skilled, providing an evidence based argument about levels of skill. The unique contribution of this work is that it lays out a theoretical framework and methodology through which an empirical analysis of skill is achievable. A specific chaîne opératoire for metal axes is used that compares not only what techniques were used, but also how they were applied. A large corpus of axes is compared in terms of what skills and attention were given at the different stages of their production. The ideas developed in this book are of interest to the emerging trend of ‘material thinking’ in the human and social sciences. At the same time, it looks towards and augments the development in craft-studies, recognising the many different aspects of craft in contemporary and past societies, and the particular relationship that craftspeople have with their material. Drawing together these two distinct fields of research will stimulate (re)thinking of how to integrate production with discussions of other aspects of object biographies, and how we link arguments about value to social models.
