The Intangible Elements of Culture in Ethnoarchaeological Research

The Intangible Elements of Culture in Ethnoarchaeological Research

Author: Stefano Biagetti

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-02

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 3319231537

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This volume focuses on the intangible elements of human cultures, whose relevance in the study of archaeology has often been claimed but rarely practiced. In this book, the authors successfully show how the adoption of ethnoarchaeological perspectives on non-material aspects of cultures can support the development of methodologies aimed at refining the archaeological interpretation of ancient items, technologies, rituals, settlements and even landscape. The volume includes a series of new approaches that can foster the dialogue between archaeology and anthropology in the domain of the intangible knowledge of rural and urban communities. The role of ethnoarchaeology in the study of the intangible heritage is so far largely underexplored, and there is a considerable lack of ethnoarchaeological studies explicitly focused on the less tangible evidence of present and past societies. Fresh case studies will revitalize the theoretical debate around ethnoarchaeology and its applicability in the archaeological and heritage research in the new millennium. Over the past decade, ‘intangible’ has become a key word in anthropological research and in heritage management. Archaeological theories and methods regarding the explorations of the meaning and the significance of artifacts, resources, and settlement patterns are increasingly focusing on non-material evidence. Due to its peculiar characteristics, ethnoarchaeology can effectively foster the development of the study of the intangible cultural heritage of living societies, and highlight its relevance to the study of those of the past.


Dogs, Past and Present

Dogs, Past and Present

Author: Ivana Fiore

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2023-09-07

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 1803273550

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This volume gathers contributions from scholars from a variety of disciplines to provide a comprehensive assessment of the importance of dogs through history. There is a focus on the necessity of an ‘interdisciplinary perspective’ to fully understand the fundamental role that dogs have played in our past.


Maya Potters' Indigenous Knowledge

Maya Potters' Indigenous Knowledge

Author: Dean E. Arnold

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2018-02-07

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1607326566

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Based on fieldwork and reflection over a period of almost fifty years, Maya Potters’ Indigenous Knowledge utilizes engagement theory to describe the indigenous knowledge of traditional Maya potters in Ticul, Yucatán, Mexico. In this heavily illustrated narrative account, Dean E. Arnold examines craftspeople’s knowledge and skills, their engagement with their natural and social environments, the raw materials they use for their craft, and their process for making pottery. Following Lambros Malafouris, Tim Ingold, and Colin Renfrew, Arnold argues that potters’ indigenous knowledge is not just in their minds but extends to their engagement with the environment, raw materials, and the pottery-making process itself and is recursively affected by visual and tactile feedback. Pottery is not just an expression of a mental template but also involves the interaction of cognitive categories, embodied muscular patterns, and the engagement of those categories and skills with the production process. Indigenous knowledge is thus a product of the interaction of mind and material, of mental categories and action, and of cognition and sensory engagement—the interaction of both human and material agency. Engagement theory has become an important theoretical approach and “indigenous knowledge” (as cultural heritage) is the focus of much current research in anthropology, archaeology, and cultural resource management. While Dean Arnold’s previous work has been significant in ceramic ethnoarchaeology, Maya Potters' Indigenous Knowledge goes further, providing new evidence and opening up different concepts and approaches to understanding practical processes. It will be of interest to a wide variety of researchers in Maya studies, material culture, material sciences, ceramic ecology, and ethnoarchaeology.


Children, Spaces and Identity

Children, Spaces and Identity

Author: Margarita Sánchez Romero

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2015-10-31

Total Pages: 459

ISBN-13: 1782979360

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How do children construct, negotiate and organize space? The study of social space in any human group is fraught with limitations, and to these we must add the further limits involved in the study of childhood. Here specialists from archaeology, history, literature, architecture, didactics, museology and anthropology build a body of theoretical and methodological approaches about how space is articulated and organized around children and how this disposition affects the creation and maintenance of social identities. Children are considered as the main actors in historic dynamics of social change, from prehistory to the present day. Notions on space, childhood and the construction of both the individual and the group identity of children are considered as a prelude to papers that focus on analyzing and identifying the spaces which contribute to the construction of children’s identity during their lives: the places they live, learn, socialize and play. A final section deals with these same aspects, but focuses on funerary contexts, in which children may lose their capacity to influence events, as it is adults who establish burial strategies and practices. In each case authors ask questions such as: how do adults construct spaces for children? How do children manage their own spaces? How do people (adults and children) build (invisible and/or physical) boundaries and spaces?


The Role of Female Leaders in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

The Role of Female Leaders in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Author: Justin, Mercia Selva Malar

Publisher: IGI Global

Published: 2024-05-13

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13:

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The world is in a race against time to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by 2030. Despite global efforts to address these ambitious goals, progress remains uneven, and significant gaps persist. Women are often underrepresented and underutilized in leadership positions, yet they possess untapped potential to be formidable forces of change. The Role of Female Leaders in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is an exploration into the role of female leaders in overcoming the challenges that hinder the realization of the UN SDGs. It makes clear that the reality of achieving these goals requires a seismic shift in leadership dynamics, with women at the forefront of this transformative journey. The Role of Female Leaders in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals introduces readers to a diverse array of women leaders who have been instrumental in driving progress towards the UN SDGs. Their stories serve as sources of inspiration for academics, corporate executives, non-governmental organization (NGO) leaders, and government officials, showcasing the tangible impact women can have when given the opportunity to lead. The book is a call to action, urging women to step into leadership roles across academia, corporations, civil society, and government, thereby expediting the achievement of the United Nations development goals.


Lithic Studies: Anatolia and Beyond

Lithic Studies: Anatolia and Beyond

Author: Adnan Baysal

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd

Published: 2022-03-31

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1789699274

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This volume aims to show networks of cultural interactions by focusing on the latest lithic studies from Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, bringing to the forefront the connectedness and techno-cultural continuity of knapped and ground stone technologies.


Contesting Ethnoarchaeologies

Contesting Ethnoarchaeologies

Author: Arkadiusz Marciniak

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-30

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1461491177

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Contesting Ethnoarchaeologies provides a systematic overview of major non-American traditions of ethnoarchaeology, with a particular focus on Europe and Asia. It explores all stages of their research agenda. These ethnoarchaeologies were embedded in theoretical traditions of local archaeologies. Moreover, ethnoarchaeological studies carried out in these different settings targeted a wide range of different issues and addressed numerous questions of covering all sorts of different issues. Consequently, achieved results and data have been largely idiosyncratic and hardly compatible. Hence, this volume aims not only to conceptualize characteristics of these diverse ethnoarchaeologies but more importantly put them in a broader context of the development of archaeology in different parts of Europe and Asia. The contributors to the volume express their own diverse views on the cognitive and interpretative value of ethnoarchaeology for studying prehistoric past, based on particular cases of experience and research. As such, the volume is not only a valuable overview of numerous ethnoarchaeological practices in different parts of the region, but also a significant contribution to the history of archaeological thought. This perspective shall make the book of wider applicability and make possible to put up ethnoarchaeology as an immanent and important element of archaeological theory.


Petrification Processes in Matter and Society

Petrification Processes in Matter and Society

Author: Sophie Hüglin

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-13

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 3030693880

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Petrification is a process, but it also can be understood as a concept. This volume takes the first steps to manifest, materialize or “petrify” the concept of “petrification” and turn it into a tool for analyzing material and social processes. The wide array of approaches to petrification as a process assembled here is more of a collection of possibilities than an attempt to establish a firm, law-generating theory. Divided into three parts, this volume’s twenty-plus authors explore petrification both as a theoretical concept and as a contextualized material and social process across geological, prehistoric and historic periods. Topics connecting the various papers are properties of materials, preferences and choices of actors, the temporality of matter, being and becoming, the relationality between actors, matter, things and space (landscape, urban space, built space), and perceptions of the following generations dealing with the petrified matter, practices, and social relations. Contributors to this volume study specifically whether particular processes of petrification are confined to the material world or can be seen as mirroring, following, triggering, or contradicting changes in social life and general world views. Each of the authors explores – for a period or a specific feature – practices and changes that led to increased conformity and regularity. Some authors additionally focus on the methods and scrutinize them and their applications for their potential to create objects of investigation: things, people, periods, in order to raise awareness for these or to shape or “invent” categories. This volume is of interest to archaeologists, geologists, architectural historians, conservationists, and historians.


Ancient Economies in Comparative Perspective

Ancient Economies in Comparative Perspective

Author: Marcella Frangipane

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-09-09

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 3031087631

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This book investigates the economic organization of ancient societies from a comparative perspective. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, including contributions by archaeologists, historians of antiquity, economic historians as well as historians of economic thought, it studies various aspects of ancient economies, such as the material living conditions including production technologies, etc.; economic institutions such as markets and coinage; as well as the economic thinking of the time. In the process, it also explores the comparability of economic thought, economic institutions and economic systems in ancient history. Focusing on the Ancient Near East as well as the Mediterranean, including Greece and Rome, this comparative perspective makes it possible to identify historical permanencies, but also diverse forms of social and political organization and cultural systems. These institutions are then evaluated in terms of their capacity to solve economic problems, such as the efficient use of resources or political stability. The first part of the book introduces readers to the methodological context of the comparative approach, including an evaluation of the related historiographical tradition. Subsequent parts discuss a range of development models, elements of economic thinking in ancient societies, the role of trade and globalization, and the use of monetary and financial instruments, as well as political aspects.


Archives, Objects, Places and Landscapes

Archives, Objects, Places and Landscapes

Author: Munyaradzi Manyanga

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2017-04-11

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9956762458

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Dissatisfaction has matured in Africa and elsewhere around the fact that often, the dominant frameworks for interpreting the continents past are not rooted on the continents value system and philosophy. This creates knowledge that does not make sense especially to local communities. The big question therefore is can Africans develop theories that can contribute towards the interpretation of the African past, using their own experiences? Framed within a concept revision substrate, the collection of papers in this thought provoking volume argues for concept revision as a step towards decolonizing knowledge in the post-colony. The various papers powerfully expose that cleansed knowledge is not only locally relevant: it is also locally accessible and globally understandable.