Anthropocentricity and the Archaeological Record: Towards a Sociology of Things

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    Abstract

    Recent years witnessed an assurgent criticism of anthropocentrism in the social sciences, arguing for more balanced approaches to the study of humans and non-humans as equally responsible for the constitution of society. These claims lean heavily on philosophical grounds, noting that the focus on the human subject is guided by modernist binary oppositions and produces an inappropriate image of society. However, the problems anthropocentricity poses for archaeology are unique, and these received little attention. It is argued that efforts to discover the human subject forces archaeologists to continuously compensate for its absence. A shift of focus from the nexus of humans and things to the nexus of things and other things is proposed, arguing that the relationships among the various components and features of the archaeological record embody social relations in themselves.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)180-195
    Number of pages16
    JournalNorwegian Archaeological Review
    Volume47
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 3 Jul 2014

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2014, © 2014 Norwegian Archaeological Review.

    Keywords

    • Actor-network theory
    • Anthropocentrism
    • Archaeology
    • inter-artefactual domain
    • sociology of things

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Archaeology

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