Material Culture and Text: The Art of Ambiguity

207 Pages·2014·8.533 MB·English

by  Christopher Tilley

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
ARCHAEOLOGY
Volume 48
MATERIAL CULTURE AND TEXT
This page intentionally left blank:
MATERIAL CULTURE AND TEXT
The Art of Ambiguity
CHRISTOPHER TILLEY
RO Routledge
UTLEDG Taylor & Francis Group
E
LONDON AND NEW YORK
Firstpublishedin1991
Thiseditionfirstpublishedin2015
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,Oxon,OX144RN
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©1991ChristopherTilley
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ISBN:978-1-138-79971-4(Set)
eISBN:978-1-315-75194-8(Set)
ISBN:978-1-138-81516-2(Volume48)
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MATERIAL CULTURE
AND TEXT
The Art of Ambiguity
CHRISTOPHERT ILLEY
I~
London and N ew York
First publishedi n 1991
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneouslyp ublishedi n the USA and Canadab y Routledge
a division of Routledge,C hapmana nd Hall Inc.
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1991 ChristopherT illey
Typesetb y J&L CompositionL td, Filey, North Yorkshire
Primed in Great Britain by T. J. Press,P adsto w, Cornwall
All rights reserved.N o part of this book may be reprintedo r
reproducedo r utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical,o r other means,n ow known or hereafter
invented,i ncluding photocopyinga nd recording, or in any
information storageo r retrieval system,w ithout permissioni n
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Tilley, Christopher
Material culture and text: the art of ambiguity. -
(Material cultures).
1. Archaeology.T heories
I. Title II. Series
930.101
Library of CongressC ataloging in Publication Data
Tilley, ChristopherY .
Material culture and text: the art of ambiguity/
ChristopherT illey.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical referencesa nd index.
1. Archaeology-Methodology2. . Material culture. 1. Title.
CC75.7.T551 991
930.1'028-dc20 90-36313
ISBN 0 415 05588 1
CONTENTS
List ofi llustrations IX
List oft ables Xl
Preface Xlll
Part I Readinga material text
1 MOTIFS AND RAPIDS 3
2 NAMFORSEN THROUGH THE EYES OF
HALLSTROM 9
3 LoeAT ING A GRAMMAR 16
Material culture, writing 16
Languagea nds peechin material culture 17
Signification 20
Paradigmatics eriesa nds yntagmaticc hains 22
Editing the book 23
Breakingd own the text 29
Investigatingt he grammar 30
4 WHY NAMFORSEN? 43
Signification through denotationa ndc onnotation 43
Denotationa ndf unctional meaning 44
Relationalitya ndm eaning 53
5 DESIGN FORM 58
The designo ft he elk 58
Insufficientb odies 69
The designo ft he boat 73
CONTENTS
6 MOBILE SPACE,A RRESTEDT IME 78
Carving surfacesa ndt opographicals pace 79
Carving time 80
7 RELATED TEXTS 87
Part II Mediating the text
8 A STRUCTURAL LOGIC 95
Bricolage, classificatorys ystems 96
Encodingi nformation 98
Timea nds tructure 100
Principles linking elks andb oats 102
9 AN HERMENEUTICSO F MEANING 114
Interpretationa nd meaning 115
Textuald istanciation 118
Hermeneuticu nderstandings, tmcturala nalysis 121
The role ofm etaphor:d igital logic, analogicl ogic 123
'Fusing' horizons: ethnohistoricapl erspectives 126
The cosmicr iver as a link betweent hree worlds 130
The shaman'st ent 134
Namforsenin the light ofE venkc osmology 135
Namforsena s a heterotopia 137
Myth, ritual and meaning 139
Aspectso fl iminality 145
10 AN ANALYTICS OF POWER 149
'Art', power, violence 150
Discourse,m aterial culture 153
Social complexity,t echnologicals implicity 155
Exchangea nde thnicity 158
Australia: ancestors,k nowledgep, ower 164
Dominationa nd the body 167
11 CONCLUSIONS 172
APPENDIX REVIEW:
MATERIAL CULTURE IN A TEXT 179
References 184
Index 190
Vlll
ILLUSTRATIONS
2 View of the rapidsa ndi slandsa t Namforsen 2
2 Bddonv iewed from Noton at high water 2
3 View of the rapids 3
4 A writhing masso f elks interspersedw ith boatsa nd shoes ole 4
5 A 'love scene'o verlookedb y an elk 5
6 Phallic man and double-headede lk 5
7 A couples tandb y an upturnede lk head 6
8 Boatst ransformi nto elks 6
9 Elks transformi nto humans 6
10 What is it? 7
11 The rock carving surfacesa t Namforsen 24
12 The main typeso f designsa t Namforsen 28
13 Carving surfaceso n pageI 31
14 Carvings urfaceso n pageI I 32
15 Carving surfaceso n pageI II 33
16 Carving surfaceso n pageI V 34
17 Rock carvings urfaceo n Bddon 36
18 The only 'human'f igure to occuri n isolation 37
19 Bddon: the centralr ock carving surface 40
20 Major areasw ith rock carvings/paintingsin Scandinavia 45
21 Rock carving and paintings itesi n northernS weden 46
22 Frequencieso f recordedp rehistoric settlements ites in
Angermanlandc ounty, northernS weden 47
23 Rock carvings urfaceo n Noton 54
24 Rock carvings urface,n orthernr iver banks 55
25 Design superpositioninga nd merging 56
26 Rock carving surface,B ddon 59
27 Headlessa ndd ouble-headede lks 60
28 Elks: exampleso f front/backl eg differentiation 60
lX