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Animating Archaeology: Local Theories and Conceptually Open-ended Methodologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Benjamin Alberti
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Framingham State College, 100 State St, Framingham, MA 01701, USA; Email: balberti@framingham.edu
Yvonne Marshall
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BF, UK; Email: ymm@soton.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Animists' theories of matter must be given equivalence at the level of theory if we are to understand adequately the nature of ontological difference in the past. The current model is of a natural ontological continuum that connects all cultures, grounding our culturally relativist worldviews in a common world. Indigenous peoples' worlds are thought of as fascinating but ultimately mistaken ways of knowing the world. We demonstrate how ontologically oriented theorists Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Karen Barad and Tim Ingold in conjuncture with an anti-representationalist methodology can provide the necessary conditions for alternative ontologies to emerge in archaeology. Anthropo-zoomorphic ‘body-pots’ from first-millennium ad northwest Argentina anticipate the possibility that matter was conceptualized as chronically unstable, inherently undifferentiated, and ultimately practice-dependent.

Type
Special Section: Animating Archaeology: of Subjects, Objects and Alternative Ontologies
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2009