Creating Material Worlds: The Uses of Identity in Archaeology - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785701800 ISBN 13: 9781785701801

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2016

Synopsis

Despite a growing literature on identity theory in the last two decades, much of its current use in archaeology is still driven toward locating and dating static categories such as ‘Phoenician’, ‘Christian’ or ‘native’. Previous studies have highlighted the various problems and challenges presented by identity, with the overall effect of deconstructing it to insignificance. As the humanities and social sciences turn to material culture, archaeology provides a unique perspective on the interaction between people and things over the long term. This volume argues that identity is worth studying not despite its slippery nature, but because of it. Identity can be seen as an emergent property of living in a material world, an ongoing process of becoming which archaeologists are particularly well suited to study. The geographic and temporal scale of the papers included is purposefully broad to demonstrate the variety of ways in which archaeology is redefining identity. Research areas span from the Great Lakes to the Mediterranean, with case studies from the Mesolithic to the contemporary world by emerging voices in the field. The volume contains a critical review of theories of identity by the editors, as well as a response and afterword by A. Bernard Knapp.

About this title

Review

At times philosophical (touching on Descartes and Gilles Deleuze) and perhaps best suited to those with some grasp of such theoretical terminology as the ‘ontological turn’, this book delivers some fascinating insights. Source: Current Archaeology

The volume demonstrates how successfully archaeologists can talk about identity in lots of different contexts and with lots of different evidence. This is what is important right now. Source: European Journal of Archaeology 28/07/2017

This is an excellently conceived and considered volume. The chapters are not only produced with thoughtfulness and intelligence, but provide a certain piquancy and challenge to the theoretical approach of those working throughout archaeology and material cultural studies. Source: Antiquaries Journal 10/12/2018

About the Author

Louisa Campbell received her PhD from the University of Glasgow in 2011. Her main research interests are in Roman material culture, the Roman and Provincial interface and theoretical approaches to culture contact. Adrian Maldonado is lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Chester. He is most interested in the ontological transformations that came with the conversion to Christianity and the adoption of literacy beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Elizabeth Pierce has worked in commercial archaeology in Britain and the U.S., and taught courses on the archaeology of the Vikings and early medieval Scotland at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests include the Middle Ages in the North Atlantic, exotic materials such as walrus ivory and jet, and recumbent monuments in medieval Scotland.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1785701800
• ISBN 13: 9781785701801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: Russell Anthony, Pierce Elizabeth, Maldonado Adrián, Campbell Louisa