A Gentle Shock of Mild Surprise: Surface ecologies and the archaeological encounter
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
This chapter aims to discuss studies by probing into the methodical implications of a post-humanist focus, that is, how to do archaeological fieldwork from a post-humanist perspective. It examines the one consequence of the post-human-ist orientation is to ‘decentre’ the ordinary discursive mode of inquiry, revolving around meaning, purpose, linear narrative, plot and explanation, and instead allow questions, curiosity and confusion to emerge in the delayed, purposeless encounter with surfaces. The methodical disposition therefore needs to frame an attitude to the unexpected surface encounter without immediately leading from wonder to explanation. Contending that an object is seen better by looking away, by giving way to wonder, and to dwell with the affective response to the encounter can seem iconoclastic in the field of archaeology, where exhaustive accounts and meticulous analyses of objects are normally celebrated as a cardinal point of the disciplinary methods.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Heritage Ecologies |
Editors | Torgeir Rinke Bangstad, Þóra Pétursdóttir |
Number of pages | 20 |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Routledge |
Publication date | 2021 |
Pages | 145-164 |
Chapter | 9 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315101019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 |
Series | Archaeological Orientations |
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- Faculty of Humanities - Ecologies, Surfaces, Insignificance, Subjectivity, Photography, Archaeology, Multispecies
Research areas
ID: 197198132