Agency in Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131795940X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (179 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency in Archaeology by : Marcia-Anne Dobres

Download or read book Agency in Archaeology written by Marcia-Anne Dobres and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-11 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agency in Archaeology is the first critical volume to scrutinise the concept of agency and to examine in-depth its potential to inform our understanding of the past. Theories of agency recognise that human beings make choices, hold intentions and take action. This offers archaeologists scope to move beyond looking at broad structural or environmental change and instead to consider the individual and the group Agency in Archaeology brings together nineteen internationally renowned scholars who have very different, and often conflicting, stances on the meaning and use of agency theory to archaeology. The volume is composed of five theoretically-based discussions and nine case studies, drawing on regions from North America and Mesoamerica to Western and central Europe, and ranging in subject from the late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers to the restructuring of gender relations in the north-eastern US.

Material Agency

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 0387747117
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (877 download)

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Book Synopsis Material Agency by : Carl Knappett

Download or read book Material Agency written by Carl Knappett and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thus far an ‘agent’ in the social sciences has always meant someone whose actions bring about change. In this volume, the editors challenge this position and examine the possibility that agency is not a solely human property. Instead, this collection of archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists explores the symbiotic relationships between humans and material entities (a key opening a door, a speed bump raising a car) as they engage with one another.

Agency Uncovered

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315435195
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency Uncovered by : Andrew Gardner

Download or read book Agency Uncovered written by Andrew Gardner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134945442
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (349 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East by : Sharon R. Steadman

Download or read book Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East written by Sharon R. Steadman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agency theory examines the relationship between individuals or groups when one party is doing work on behalf of another. 'Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East' offers a theoretical study of agency and identity in Near Eastern archaeology, an area which until now has been largely ignored by archaeologists. The book explores how agency theory can be employed in reconstructing the meaning of spaces and material culture, how agency and identity intersect, and how the availability of a textual corpus may impact on the agency approach. Ranging from the Neolithic to the Islamic period, 'Agency and Identity in the Ancient Near East' covers sites located in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. The volume includes contributions from philology, art, history, computer simulation studies, materials science, and the archaeology of settlement and architecture.

Agency in Ancient Writing

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Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1457174022
Total Pages : 428 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (571 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency in Ancient Writing by : Joshua Englehardt

Download or read book Agency in Ancient Writing written by Joshua Englehardt and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2012-12-15 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Through the lens of agency, contributors successfully rethink the nature of ancient texts. In so doing they ably demonstrate that when a new theoretical orientation is applied to a taken-for-granted category of data it invigorates both the data and our understanding of the past." —Marcia-Anne Dobres, University of Main Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 331900008X
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology by : Gabriel Wurzer

Download or read book Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology written by Gabriel Wurzer and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology has been historically reluctant to embrace the subject of agent-based simulation, since it was seen as being used to "re-enact" and "visualize" possible scenarios for a wider (generally non-scientific) audience, based on scarce and fuzzy data. Furthermore, modeling "in exact terms" and programming as a means for producing agent-based simulations were simply beyond the field of the social sciences. This situation has changed quite drastically with the advent of the internet age: Data, it seems, is now ubiquitous. Researchers have switched from simply collecting data to filtering, selecting and deriving insights in a cybernetic manner. Agent-based simulation is one of the tools used to glean information from highly complex excavation sites according to formalized models, capturing essential properties in a highly abstract and yet spatial manner. As such, the goal of this book is to present an overview of techniques used and work conducted in that field, drawing on the experience of practitioners.

Agency Uncovered

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1315435209
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (154 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency Uncovered by : Andrew Gardner

Download or read book Agency Uncovered written by Andrew Gardner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Handbook of Archaeological Theories

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Author :
Publisher : AltaMira Press
ISBN 13 : 0759113602
Total Pages : 599 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (591 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Archaeological Theories by : R. Alexander Bentley

Download or read book Handbook of Archaeological Theories written by R. Alexander Bentley and published by AltaMira Press. This book was released on 2007-11-09 with total page 599 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook gathers original, authoritative articles from leading archaeologists to compile the latest thinking about archaeological theory. The authors provide a comprehensive picture of the theoretical foundations by which archaeologists contextualize and analyze their archaeological data. Student readers will also gain a sense of the immense power that theory has for building interpretations of the past, while recognizing the wonderful archaeological traditions that created it. An extensive bibliography is included. This volume is the single most important reference for current information on contemporary archaeological theories.

Agency in Ancient Writing

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607322099
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Agency in Ancient Writing by : Joshua Englehardt

Download or read book Agency in Ancient Writing written by Joshua Englehardt and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2012-12-15 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.

Unpacking the Collection

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1441982221
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Unpacking the Collection by : Sarah Byrne

Download or read book Unpacking the Collection written by Sarah Byrne and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-06-27 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Museum collections are often perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind glass cases. By focusing on the dynamic histories of museum collections, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations. Over time and across space the interactions between these artefacts and the people and institutions who made, traded, collected, researched and exhibited them have generated complex networks of material and social agency. In this innovative volume, the contributors draw on a broad range of source materials to explore the cross-cultural interactions which have created museum collections. These case studies contribute significantly to the development of new theoretical frameworks to examine broader questions of materiality, agency, and identity in the past and present. Grounded in case studies from individual objects and museum collections from North America, Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, this truly international volume juxtaposes historical, geographical, and cross-cultural studies. This work will be of great interest to archaeologists and anthropologists studying material culture, as well as researchers in museum studies and cultural heritage management.

Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : University Press of Colorado
ISBN 13 : 1607327473
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology by : Eleanor Harrison-Buck

Download or read book Relational Identities and Other-than-Human Agency in Archaeology written by Eleanor Harrison-Buck and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Handbook of Archaeological Theories

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Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780759100336
Total Pages : 604 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Handbook of Archaeological Theories by : R. Alexander Bentley

Download or read book Handbook of Archaeological Theories written by R. Alexander Bentley and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook gathers original, authoritative articles from leading archaeologists to compile the latest thinking about archaeological theory. The authors provide a comprehensive picture of the theoretical foundations by which archaeologists contextualize and analyze their archaeological data. Student readers will also gain a sense of the immense power that theory has for building interpretations of the past, while recognizing the wonderful archaeological traditions that created it. An extensive bibliography is included. This volume is the single most important reference for current information on contemporary archaeological theories.

Archaeology's Visual Culture

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317377435
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (173 download)

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Book Synopsis Archaeology's Visual Culture by : Roger Balm

Download or read book Archaeology's Visual Culture written by Roger Balm and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology’s Visual Culture explores archaeology through the lens of visual culture theory. The insistent visuality of archaeology is a key stimulus for the imaginative and creative interpretation of our encounters with the past. Balm investigates the nature of this projection of the visual, revealing an embedded subjectivity in the imagery of archaeology and acknowledging the multiplicity of meanings that cohere around artifacts, archaeological sites and museum displays. Using a wide range of case studies, the book highlights how archaeologists can view objects and the consequences that ensue from these ways of seeing. Throughout the book Balm considers the potential for documentary images and visual material held in archives to perform cultural work within and between groups of specialists. With primary sources ranging from the mid-nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, this volume also maps the intellectual and social connections between archaeologists and their peers. Geographical settings include Britain, Cyprus, Mesoamerica, the Middle East and the United States, and the sites of visual encounter are no less diverse, ranging from excavation reports in salvage archaeology to instrumentally derived data-sets and remote-sensing imagery. By forensically examining selected visual records from published accounts and archival sources, enduring tropes of representation become apparent that transcend issues of style and reflect fundamental visual sensibilities within the discipline of archaeology.

Archaeology in America [4 volumes]

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 0313021899
Total Pages : 1477 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Archaeology in America [4 volumes] by : Linda S. Cordell

Download or read book Archaeology in America [4 volumes] written by Linda S. Cordell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 1477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The greatness of America is right under our feet. The American past—the people, battles, industry and homes—can be found not only in libraries and museums, but also in hundreds of archaeological sites that scientists investigate with great care. These sites are not in distant lands, accessible only by research scientists, but nearby—almost every locale possesses a parcel of land worthy of archaeological exploration. Archaeology in America is the first resource that provides students, researchers, and anyone interested in their local history with a survey of the most important archaeological discoveries in North America. Leading scholars, most with an intimate knowledge of the area, have written in-depth essays on over 300 of the most important archaeological sites that explain the importance of the site, the history of the people who left the artifacts, and the nature of the ongoing research. Archaeology in America divides it coverage into 8 regions: the Arctic and Subarctic, the Great Basin and Plateau, the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, the Midwest, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Southwest, and the West Coast. Each entry provides readers with an accessible overview of the archaeological site as well as books and articles for further research.

Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose

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Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9780792367635
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (676 download)

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Book Synopsis Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose by : Umberto Albarella

Download or read book Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose written by Umberto Albarella and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2001-01-31 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the fact that the human life of the past cannot be understood without taking into account its ecological relationships, environmental studies are often marginalized in archaeology. This is the first book that, by discussing the meaning and purpose we give to the expression `environmental archaeology', investigates the reasons for such a problem. The book is written in an accessible manner and is of interest to all students who want to understand the essence of archaeology beyond the boundary of the individual subdisciplines.

Beyond Egyptomania

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110565846
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (15 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond Egyptomania by : Miguel John Versluys

Download or read book Beyond Egyptomania written by Miguel John Versluys and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The material and intellectual presence of Egypt is at the heart of Western culture, religion and art from Antiquity to the present. This volume aims to provide a long term and interdisciplinary perspective on Egypt and its mnemohistory, taking theories on objects and their agency as its main point of departure. The central questions the book addresses are why, from the first millennium BC onwards, things and concepts Egyptian are to be found in such a great variety of places throughout European history and how we can account for their enduring impact over time. By taking a radically object-oriented perspective on this question, this book is also a major contribution to current debates on the agency of artefacts across archaeology, anthropology and art history.

Interpreting Archaeology

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Author :
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780415073301
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (733 download)

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Book Synopsis Interpreting Archaeology by : Ian Hodder

Download or read book Interpreting Archaeology written by Ian Hodder and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covers the ways in which material culture is understood and preserved in museums and how the nature of history is itself in flux.