Debates in World Archaeology

Issue covering a number of topics, including a special section on symmetrical archaeology. Papers in this section include

It is argued that thermal considerations can help resolve two problems in Later Palaeolithic archaeology -- the demise of Neanderthals and the emergence of modern human behaviour. Both can be viewed as reflecting interactions between biological and behavioural cold adaptations, in the context of extreme climatic fluctuations during the Upper Pleistocene. Recent studies draw attention to the special difficulties these conditions posed for humans but few give sufficient regard to the need for adequate pre-adaptations, namely technologies for manufacturing complex clothing assemblages. It is argued here that pre-existing biological cold adaptations delayed the development of such technological capacities among Neanderthals, resulting ultimately in their extinction. In contrast, the greater biological vulnerability of fully modern humans promoted a precocious appearance of behavioural adaptations among some (though not all) groups, visible in the various archaeological markers of modern human behaviour.

The author argues that objects are a key aspect of archaeological evidence and theories about them should contribute to interdisciplinary debates on materiality and material culture. Despite the primacy of this evidence it is suggested that there is considerable scope for further debate about the role of materials in concepts of materiality and the social construction of sensory perception, and that, although this is as true for a past society as it is for our own, the two world views may be ill-matched and archaeology can miss important sensory issues in the societies it studies. The way in which archaeology deals with objects is deconstructed to offer some criticism of present practice, and some ideas for new ways of thinking about the role of sensory perception in constructing concepts of materiality for past societies by a focus on attention. Further exploration of the role of the senses in the modern craft of finds analysis is advocated, in order to elucidate the passing on of such skills and the way in which material experiences colour modern perceptions and interpretations.

the paper discusses the principle of symmetry for archaeology in light of the discipline's theoretical legacy. It is stated that, at the core, this principle involves a reconfiguration of how the relationship between humans and things is characterized, and that advocating the recognition of mixtures of what are routinely parsed into categories of nature and society, a symmetrical archaeology centres itself upon the equitable study of the discipline's defining ingredients. It is argued that such symmetry of humans and things undercuts many dualisms exhibited throughout the recent history of archaeological theory and practice. The article summarizes the salient formulations of this relationship in archaeological thinking and suggests that a symmetrical focus on ontological mixtures removes the reliance upon multiplying epistemological settlements that fragment the discipline. An example is given of how heritage might be rethought

taking the premise that symmetry is an epistemological and ethical principle developed in the social study of scientific practice, the essay connects a symmetrical archaeology to major trends in the discipline since the 1960s and to key components of archaeological practice -- relational ontologies, mixtures of past and present, people and things, biology and culture, individual and society. It is argued that symmetrical archaeology is a culmination of effort in archaeology to undercut these modernist dualities and to recognize the vitality of the present past, and that symmetry adds new force to the claim that archaeologists have a unique perspective on human engagements with things, on social agency and constructions of contemporary identity