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J Social Archaeol 1 (2)
Title
The title of the publication or report
Title:
J Social Archaeol 1 (2)
Series
The series the publication or report is included in
Series:
Journal of Social Archaeology
Volume
Volume number and part
Volume:
1 (2)
Publication Type
The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book
Publication Type:
Journal
Editor
The editor of the publication or report
Editor:
Lynn Meskell
Chris Gosden
Publisher
The publisher of the publication or report
Publisher:
Sage Publications
Year of Publication
The year the book, article or report was published
Year of Publication:
2001
Source
Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in.
Source:
BIAB (The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
Relations
Other resources which are relevant to this publication or report
Relations:
URI:
http://jsa.sagepub.com/content/vol1/issue2
Created Date
The date the record of the pubication was first entered
Created Date:
19 Feb 2004
Please click on an Article link to go to the Article Details.
Article Title
Access Type
Author / Editor
Page
Start/End
Abstract
The limitations of doxa
Adam T Smith
155 - 171
In recent years, archaeological discussions of agency have relied quite heavily upon Pierre Bourdieu's rendering of doxa [Greek `opinion', here meaning that which is taken for granted/unquestioned] in discriminating between those phenomena resulting from habit and those from active intention. However, doxa presents considerable problems for archaeological analyses as it rests upon a troubling theory of history and fails to assist in promulgating an archaeological account of subjectivity. This article presents an explicitly archaeological critique of Bourdieu's doxa, utilizing a decorated silver-plated goblet from the MBA site in Armenia, to explore future directions in the theorization of subjectivity.
Agency, practical politics and the archaeology of culture contact
Stephen Silliman
190 - 209
A paper that seeks to intersect the trajectory of the agency concept in archaeology. Briefly summarises the state of `agency' in archaeology and its deployment in theories of practice. This opens a space to introduce the concepts of practical politics and doxa, and their effectiveness is illustrated by addressing issues of social relations, power, identity and daily practice. Their particular applicability to colonial and culture-contact studies is noted. On an empirical front, the lenses of doxa and practical politics are turned to a case study in nineteenth-century northern California. Concludes that although lithic practices display a material continuity in technology, they are in fact part of a social change surrounding the politics of practice.
The limits of agency in the analysis of elite Iron Age Celtic burials
Bettina Arnold
210 - 224
Burial ritual is put forward as an area of human behaviour that at first seems particularly resistant to the identification of purposeful and intentional action in the archaeological past when viewed from the perspective of the deceased individual. In the context of the European Iron Age this is partly because burial ritual falls so clearly into an area of group expression that is explicitly public and apparently conservative, but also because the actual focus of the activity generally is not in a position to influence the form of their own disposal. In fact, of course, it is possible to speak of agency in burial ritual from the perspective of both the deceased and the survivors involved in the mortuary performance itself. The question is to what extent and under what conditions individual action will be expressed in an archaeologically recognizable way.
`Hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother'
Ulrike Sommer
244 - 270
This article examines the scope for agency in the Early Neolithic Central European Linearbandkeramik culture (5600-4800 BC). It discusses whether a lack of development in certain areas of material culture should be interpreted as evidence of a stable lebenswelt (lifeworld), where change is simply unimaginable, or if this in contrast provides evidence for mechanisms actively preventing stylistic change, thus representing a state of orthodoxy, according to Bourdieu.
Commentary
Sherry B Ortner
271 - 278
Comments on papers discussing agency and doxa in theoretical interpretations of past societies.