Archaeologies of Materiality (eBook)

Lynn Meskell (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2008 | 1. Auflage
240 Seiten
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-1-4051-5022-4 (ISBN)

Infos

Drawing on social theory and offering numerous case studies, Archaeologies of Materiality is one of the first books to explore materiality across time and space.

* Demonstrates the saliency of materiality by linking it to concepts of landscape, technology, embodiment, ritual, and heritage.

* Offers archaeological case studies ranging from prehistoric to contemporary contexts, from Neo-Assyria, South Africa, Argentina, Panama, and the United States.

* Explores the idea of a material universe that is socially conceived and constructed, but that also shapes human experience in daily practice.

Autor

Lynn Meskell (Ph.D. University of Cambridge) is Professor of Cultural and Social Anthropology at Stanford University. She is the founding editor of the Journal of Social Archaeology and has published numerous articles and books including Archaeology under Fire (ed. 1998), Archaeologies of Social Life (Blackwell 1999), Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt (2001), Embodied Lives: Figuring Ancient Maya and Egyptian Experience (with Rosemary Joyce, 2003), Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material Biographies Past and Present (2004), Companion to Social Archaeology (ed. with Robert Preucel, Blackwell 2004), and Embedding Ethics (ed. with Peter Pels, 2005).

Inhalt

List of Figures.

Acknowledgments.

Notes on Contributors.

1. Introduction: Object Orientations: Lynn Meskell.

2. Mastering Matters: Magical Sense and the Apotropaic Figure
Worlds: Carolyn Nakamura.

3. The Social life of Rocks: Lindsay Weiss.

4. With a Hint of Paris in the Mouth: Fetishized Toothbrushes or
the Sensuous Experience of Modernity in Late 19th-Century
Bogotá: Felipe Gaitán.

5. Faith in Objects: American Indian Object Lessons at the World
in Boston: Erin Hasinoff.

6. The Texture of Things: Objects, People, and Social Spaces in
Argentine Prehistory: Marisa Lazzari.

7. Building an Architecture of Power: Electricity in Annapolis,
Maryland: Matt Palus.

8. Materiality vs. the Volcano: The Hitherto Unthinkable
Wildness of the Volcán Barú, Panamá: Karen
Holmberg.

Afterword: Daniel Miller.

Index

Rezensionen

"This fascinating and path-breaking volume addresses the most
profound conceptual problems raised by the sheer materiality of
things. It opens up important new conversations among
archaeologists, socio-cultural anthropologists, and social
theorists of all sorts."

Webb Keane, University of Michigan

"This collection is not only a great pleasure to read, but
will impress all scholars interested in material culture with its
multidisciplinary maturity."

Peter Pels, Leiden University

"This volume forces us to bring into focus our supposedly
transparent 'materialism' and recognize that the
'things' we use to 'know a people' elude
our classic taxonomies and trouble our social theoretical
categories. Calling into question a simple dichotomy of objects as
'purely functional or deeply symbolic' this volume
helps us understand how 'materiality is problematic not only
for our classical versions of material determinism but equally for
many of our 'new' and 'post' theories of
signification."

Cambridge Archaeological Journal

"This book crosses boundaries between anthropology,
material culture studies, and archaeology, in an attempt to
strengthen a burgeoning movement toward looking at archaeological
materials through the lens of materiality... it would be
appropriate reading for all archaeologists interested in further
exploring the relationships between social concepts and material
culture."

Canadian journal of Archaeology

"Readers less interested in specific approach to
materiality will find value in the various reflections on the
subject and practice of archaeology in this volume."

American Antiquity

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.5.2008
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Anthropologie • Anthropology • Archäologie • archaeology • Archäologie • Social & Cultural Anthropology • Soziale u. kulturelle Anthropologie
• ISBN-10: 1-4051-5022-X / 140515022X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-5022-4 / 9781405150224