Relational Archaeologies: Humans, Animals, Things

269 Pages·2013·4.16 MB·English

by  Christopher Watts

RELATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGIES
Many of us accept as uncontroversial the belief that the world is comprised of
detached and disparate products, all of which are reducible to certain substances.
Of those things that are alive, we acknowledge that some have agency while others,
such as humans, have more advanced qualities such as consciousness, reason, and
intentionality. So deeply seated is this metaphysical belief, along with the related
distinctions we draw between subject/object, mind/body, and nature/culture, that
many of us tacitly assume past groups approached and apprehended the world in a
similar fashion. Relational Archaeologies questions how such a view of human beings,
‘other-than-human’creatures,andthingsaffectsourreconstructionofpastbeliefsand
practices. It proceeds from the position that, in many cases, past societies under-
stoodtheirplaceintheworldaspositionalratherthancategorical,aspersonsbound
upinreticular arrangementswithsimilar and not-so-similarforms, regardlessof their
substantive qualities.
Relational Archaeologies explores this idea by emphasizing how humans, animals,
and things come to exist by virtue of the dynamic and fluid processes of connection
and transaction. In highlighting various counter-Modern notions of what it means
‘tobe’andhowthesecanbeteasedapartusingarchaeologicalmaterials,contributors
provide a range of approaches, from primarily theoretical/historicized treatments of
the topic, to practical applications or case studies from the Americas, the UK,
Europe, Asia, and Australia.
ChristopherWattsisaSSHRCPostdoctoralFellow attheUniversityofWestern
Ontario in London, Canada, and a Research Associate at the Royal Ontario
Museum in Toronto.
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RELATIONAL
ARCHAEOLOGIES
Humans, animals, things
Edited by
Christopher Watts
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
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SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
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©2013ChristopherWattsforselectionandeditorialmatter;individual
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BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Relationalarchaeologies:humans,animals,things/editedbyChristopherWatts.
pages.cm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Archaeology--Philosophy.2.Agent(Philosophy)3.Ontology.4.Relationism.
5.Human-animalrelationships.6.Human-plantrelationships.7.Materialculture.
I.Watts,ChristopherM.,1972-author,editorofcompilation.
CC75.R4552013
930.1--dc23
2012044453
ISBN:978-0-415-52531-2(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-52532-9(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-55313-8(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylorandFrancisBooks
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of tables x
List of contributors xi
Acknowledgments xiv
1 Relational archaeologies: roots and routes 1
Christopher Watts
2 Inhuman eyes: looking at Chavín de Huantar 21
Mary Weismantel
3 Theater of predation: beneath the skin of Göbekli Tepe images 42
Dušan Bori´c
4 The bear-able likeness of being: ursine remains at the
Shamanka II cemetery, Lake Baikal, Siberia 65
Robert J. Losey, Vladimir I. Bazaliiskii, Angela R. Lieverse, Andrea
Waters-Rist, Kate Faccia, and Andrzej W. Weber
5 Between the living and the dead: relational ontologies and the
ritual dimensions of dugong hunting across Torres Strait 97
Ian J. McNiven
6 Methodological and analytical challenges in relational
archaeologies: a view from the hunting ground 117
María Nieves Zedeño
vi Contents
7 Identity communities and memory practices: relational
logics in the US Southwest 135
Wendi Field Murray and Barbara J. Mills
8 Intimate connection: bodies and substances in flux in the
early Neolithic of central Europe 154
Daniela Hofmann
9 Relational communities in prehistoric Britain 173
Oliver J. T. Harris
10 Shifting horizons and emerging ontologies in the
Bronze Age Aegean 190
Andrew Shapland
11 Classicism and knowing the world in early modern Sweden 209
Vesa-Pekka Herva and Jonas M. Nordin
12 The imbrication of human and animal paths: an Arctic
case study 228
Peter Whitridge
13 The maze and the labyrinth: reflections of a fellow-traveller 245
Tim Ingold
Index 250
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 Marcus Coates, Goshawk (1999). Produced by Grizedale Arts.
Photography by Jet 6
1.2 Diagrammatic representation of the four ontological schemes
given by the ‘generative axes’ of physicality and interiority
(after Descola 2005:176) 7
2.1 Obelisk Tello. Photo by James Q. Jacobs. Used with permission 26
2.2 Roll-out drawings of the twin figures on the Black and White
Portals, as originally published by John Rowe. Used with
permission 27
2.3 Unnamed lintel with repeating eyes. Photograph by the author 33
2.4 The Lanzón. Photograph by the author 36
3.1 Map of Göbekli Tepe with the locations of related and
contemporaneous sites in Upper Mesopotamia and the Near East 43
3.2 The main excavation area at Göbekli Tepe with features
exposed up to 2009 (adapted after Schmidt 2009:Figure 3) 45
3.3 T-pillar 18 with carvings of human arms, Enclosure D,
one of the two central pillars at Göbekli Tepe (photograph by
Irmgard Wagner, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) 46
3.4 (a) Frequency of hunted animals at Göbekli Tepe; (b) frequency
of depicted animals at Göbekli Tepe (appended after Peters and
Schmidt 2004) 48
3.5 T-pillar 12 with the carvings of birds in a landscape (?), wild boar
andfox, Enclosure C,Göbekli Tepe(photograph byDieterJohannes,
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) 55
3.6 T-pillar 33, with the carving of a fox, Enclosure D, Göbekli
Tepe (photograph by Irmgard Wagner, Deutsches Archäologisches
Institut) 56
viii Listoffigures
3.7 An artistic reconstruction of construction works in enclosure
D (Layer III) at Göbekli Tepe (drawing: John Gordon Swogger) 58
4.1 Location of the Shamanka II cemetery on Lake Baikal, Russia 66
4.2 Early Neolithic graves at Shamanka 68
4.3 Grave#22atShamanka:a)theinvertedbearcraniaandafewisolated
human remains and artifacts found at midlevel in the grave; b) the
skeleton of an adult male at the base of the grave pit. The black
object lying diagonally on the chest is a bear baculum; c) profile view
of grave #22 85
4.4 The whole bear cranium found in grave #22 at Shamanka 86
5.1 Ned Waria of Mabuyag, Torres Strait, holding a harpoon (wap) and
demonstrating the use of a dugong hunting platform (nath) to Alfred
Haddon, 1888. (Courtesy of Cambridge University Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology – P.1148.ACH1) 105
5.2 Torres Strait Islander skulls from the island of Naghi, Torres Strait,
used for divination (from Thomas 1884:Plate 2) 107
5.3 Grave of Banasa (b. 1879, d. 1943), a renowned dugong
hunter, Mabuyag Island Cemetery, Torres Strait (Photo: Ian
J. McNiven) 107
5.4 Carved wooden dugong hunting charm with two human
leg bones (fibulae) attached (from Haddon 1901:Fig. 18).
British Museum: 89+182 108
5.5 Grave decorated with marine shells, dugong ribs and skulls,
and four wooden corner posts, Muralag, Torres Strait, 1844
(from Jukes 1847, I:149) 111
6.1 Progressive contextualization of Iniskim in simple and complex
intersections 130
7.1 Location of Chaco and Hohokam areas in the North
American Southwest 138
7.2 Snaketown Cache 1:10G, a cache of Hohokam censers. From
The Hohokam: Desert Farmers and Craftsmen by Emil W. Haury,
Figure 11.15 142
7.3 Small set of objects placed in a pilaster niche at Pueblo
Bonito, Room 161, Log 5 (Hyde Expedition), AMNH #H16184.
Photo by Barbara Mills 143
8.1 Map of LBK distribution. After Midgley (2005:14) 155
8.2 Plan of an LBK building from Lerchenhaid, Lower Bavaria.
After Brink-Kloke (1992:58) 160
8.3 Grave 88 from the Aiterhofen cemetery, Lower Bavaria (after
Nieszery 1995:Plate 35) 161
8.4 Complex 9 from the pit enclosure at Herxheim,
Rhineland-Palatinate. Reproduced with permission of
Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe
Rheinland-Pfalz, Direktion Archäologie Speyer 164
Listoffigures ix
10.1 Gold seal from Mycenae Shaft Grave III showing man and lion in
conflict, 1600–1500 BC. © CMS Archive 196
10.2 Four-sided seal bearing Cretan Hieroglyphic Script, 1850–1600 BC.
GR 1934, 1120.1 © Trustees of the British Museum 200
10.3 Faience sea creatures from the Knossos Temple Repositories,
ca. 1600 BC 201
10.4 Sealstone showing a human-animal hybrid, or ‘minotaur,’
1450–1375 BC. © Trustees of the British Museum 202
10.5 Mycenaean glass beads and gold covers from Ialysos, 1350–1250 BC.
© Trustees of the British Museum 203
11.1 Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg, as represented in his book
Tychonis Brahe Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (1598) 214
11.2 The Skokloster castle today. Photo: J. Nordin 215
11.3 The Skokloster castle and its surroundings in 1666.
From Erik Dahlberg’s Svecia Antiqua et Hodierna (1716) 219
11.4 A streetscape of a ‘classical’ wooden town (Rauma, Southwest
Finland). Photo: V.-P. Herva 222
12.1 Paths of movement in and around a precontact and
protohistoric Inuit winter house (House 2 at Nachvak
Village [IgCx-3], northern Labrador) 230
12.2 End-slotted antler knife handle from the precontact Inuit site of
Qariaraqyuk (PaJs-2), Nunavut. The incised design depicts a kayaker,
caribou, archer, and inuksuk 234
12.3 Game trails in northern Labrador: a) lemming trail running through
Inuit tent ring; b) polar bear paw prints; c) caribou trail crossing
Dorset site; d) caribou trail reused by archaeologists 236
12.4 Base of miniature soapstone pot from Nachvak Village with
likely depiction of mountainous coastline 238
12.5 Tooth or walrus ivory pendant from Nachvak Village depicting
stylized polar bear 240