
An Archaeology of Interaction
Network Perspectives on Material Culture and Society
Carl Knappett(Author)
Oxford University Press
Published on 12. June 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
262 pages
978-0-19-870693-9 (ISBN)
Description
Think of a souvenir from a foreign trip, or an heirloom passed down the generations - distinctive individual artefacts allow us to think and act beyond the proximate, across both space and time. While this makes anecdotal sense, what does scholarship have to say about the role of artefacts in human thought? Surprisingly, material culture research tends also to focus on individual artefacts. But objects rarely stand independently from one another they are interconnected in complex constellations. This innovative volume asserts that it is such 'networks of objects' that instill objects with their power, enabling them to evoke distant times and places for both individuals and communities.
Using archaeological case studies from the Bronze Age of Greece throughout, Knappett develops a long-term, archaeological angle on the development of object networks in human societies. He explores the benefits such networks create for human interaction across scales, and the challenges faced by ancient societies in balancing these benefits against their costs. In objectifying and controlling artefacts in networks, human communities can lose track of the recalcitrant pull that artefacts exercise. Materials do not always do as they are asked. We never fully understand all their aspects. This we grasp in our everyday, unconscious working in the phenomenal world, but overlook in our network thinking. And this failure to attend to things and give them their due can lead to societal 'disorientation'.
Using archaeological case studies from the Bronze Age of Greece throughout, Knappett develops a long-term, archaeological angle on the development of object networks in human societies. He explores the benefits such networks create for human interaction across scales, and the challenges faced by ancient societies in balancing these benefits against their costs. In objectifying and controlling artefacts in networks, human communities can lose track of the recalcitrant pull that artefacts exercise. Materials do not always do as they are asked. We never fully understand all their aspects. This we grasp in our everyday, unconscious working in the phenomenal world, but overlook in our network thinking. And this failure to attend to things and give them their due can lead to societal 'disorientation'.
Reviews / Votes
The reader should come away from this book with a new appreciation for network thinking and for the complex relationships between objects (artifacts and assemblages) and things. In a practical sense, network thinking provides new ways of looking at the development of Bronze Age pottery and the spread of Minoan material culture and identity across the Aegean. As Knappett indicates ... it is a solid foundation for the future. * Michael Deal, Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
60 b/w in text
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
404 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-870693-9 (9780198706939)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
08/2011
Oxford University Press
€190.30
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Author
Walter Graham/ Homer Thompson Professor of Aegean Prehistory, Department of Art, University of Toronto
Content
PART 1; PART 2; PART 3; EPILOGUE