The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory

The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Theory

Author: Andrew Gardner

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780191750977

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This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.


Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology

Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology

Author: Eleanor Harrison-Buck

Publisher: University Press of Colorado

Published: 2018-08-20

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1607327473

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Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology explores the benefits and consequences of archaeological theorizing on and interpretation of the social agency of nonhumans as relational beings capable of producing change in the world. The volume cross-examines traditional understanding of agency and personhood, presenting a globally diverse set of case studies that cover a range of cultural, geographical, and historical contexts. Agency (the ability to act) and personhood (the reciprocal qualities of relational beings) have traditionally been strictly assigned to humans. In case studies from Ghana to Australia to the British Isles and Mesoamerica, contributors to this volume demonstrate that objects, animals, locations, and other nonhuman actors also potentially share this ontological status and are capable of instigating events and enacting change. This kind of other-than-human agency is not a one-way transaction of cause to effect but requires an appropriate form of reciprocal engagement indicative of relational personhood, which in these cases, left material traces detectable in the archaeological record. Modern dualist ontologies separating objects from subjects and the animate from the inanimate obscure our understanding of the roles that other-than-human agents played in past societies. Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology challenges this essentialist binary perspective. Contributors in this volume show that intersubjective (inherently social) ways of being are a fundamental and indispensable condition of all personhood and move the debate in posthumanist scholarship beyond the polarizing dichotomies of relational versus bounded types of persons. In this way, the book makes a significant contribution to theory and interpretation of personhood and other-than-human agency in archaeology. Contributors: Susan M. Alt, Joanna Brück, Kaitlyn Chandler, Erica Hill, Meghan C. L. Howey, Andrew Meirion Jones, Matthew Looper, Ian J. McNiven, Wendi Field Murray, Timothy R. Pauketat, Ann B. Stahl, Maria Nieves Zedeño


Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation

Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation

Author: Barbara Hausmair

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2018-01-29

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13: 1785337661

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How can we study the impact of rules on the lives of past people using archaeological evidence? To answer this question, Archaeologies of Rules and Regulation presents case studies drawn from across Europe and the United States. Covering areas as diverse as the use of space in a nineteenth-century U.S. Army camp, the deposition of waste in medieval towns, the experiences of Swedish migrants to North America, the relationship between people and animals in Anglo-Saxon England, these case studies explore the use of archaeological evidence in understanding the relationship between rules, lived experience, and social identity.


Ideology, Power and Prehistory

Ideology, Power and Prehistory

Author: Theoretical Archaeology Group (England). Conference

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1984-05-03

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780521255264

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This book starts from the premise that methodology has always dominated archaeology to the detriment of broader social theory.


The Archaeology of Ethnicity

The Archaeology of Ethnicity

Author: Siân Jones

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-11

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1134767943

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The question of ethnicity is highly controversial in contemporary archaeology. The author responds to the need for a reassessment of the ways in which social groups are identified in the archeological record.


Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heritage

Archaeological Theory and the Politics of Cultural Heritage

Author: Laurajane Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 1134367953

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This controversial book is a survey of how relationships between indigenous peoples and the archaeological establishment have got into difficulty, and a crucial pointer to how to move forward from this point. With lucid appraisals of key debates such as NAGPRA, Kennewick and the repatriation of Tasmanian artefacts, Laurajane Smith dissects the nature and consequences of this clash of cultures. Smith explores how indigenous communities in the USA and Australia have confronted the pre-eminence of archaeological theory and discourse in the way the material remains of their past are cared for and controlled, and how this has challenged traditional archaeological thought and practice. Essential reading for all those concerned with developing a just and equal dialogue between the two parties, and the role of archaeology in the research and management of their heritage.


Archaeological Theory Today

Archaeological Theory Today

Author: Ian Hodder

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2014-02-27

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 074568100X

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Now in a revised and updated second edition, this volume provides an authoritative account of the current status of archaeological theory, as presented by some of its major exponents and innovators over recent decades. It summarizes the latest developments in the field and looks to its future, exploring some of the cutting-edge ideas at the forefront of the discipline. The volume captures the diversity of contemporary archaeological theory. Some authors argue for an approach close to the natural sciences, others for an engagement with cultural debate about representation of the past. Some minimize the relevance of culture to societal change, while others see it as central; some focus on the contingent and the local, others on long-term evolution. While few practitioners in theoretical archaeology would today argue for a unified disciplinary approach, the authors in this volume increasingly see links and convergences between their perspectives. The volume also reflects archaeology's new openness to external influences, as well as the desire to contribute to wider debates. The contributors examine ways in which archaeological evidence contributes to theories of evolutionary psychology, as well as to the social sciences in general, where theories of social relationships, agency, landscape and identity are informed by the long-term perspective of archaeology. The new edition of Archaeological Theory Today will continue to be essential reading for students and scholars in archaeology and in the social sciences more generally.


Agency Uncovered

Agency Uncovered

Author: Andrew Gardner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-06-16

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 1315435195

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This 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.


Indigenous Archaeologies

Indigenous Archaeologies

Author: Claire Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-11-10

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1134391552

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With case studies from North America to Australia and South Africa and covering topics from archaeological ethics to the repatriation of human remains, this book charts the development of a new form of archaeology that is informed by indigenous values and agendas. This involves fundamental changes in archaeological theory and practice as well as substantive changes in the power relations between archaeologists and indigenous peoples. Questions concerning the development of ethical archaeological practices are at the heart of this process.