Personifying Prehistory
Relational Ontologies in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:30th Sep '21
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- Hardback£105.00(9780198768012)
The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of agricultural production, it is seen as the precursor and origin-point for significant aspects of the modern world. This book presents a very different image of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. Drawing on the wealth of material from recent excavations, as well as a long history of research, it explores the impact of the post-Enlightenment 'othering' of the non-human on our understanding of Bronze Age society. There is much to suggest that the conceptual boundary between the active human subject and the passive world of objects, so familiar from our own cultural context, was not drawn in this categorical way in the Bronze Age; the self was constructed in relational rather than individualistic terms, and aspects of the non-human world such as pots, houses, and mountains were considered animate entities with their own spirit or soul. In a series of thematic chapters on the human body, artefacts, settlements, and landscapes, this book considers the character of Bronze Age personhood, the relationship between individual and society, and ideas around agency and social power. The treatment and deposition of things such as querns, axes, and human remains provides insights into the meanings and values ascribed to objects and places, and the ways in which such items acted as social agents in the Bronze Age world.
Personifying Prehistory is a tour de force that encapsulates the theoretical work that Joanna Brück has developed over the last two decades and combines it with in-depth and detailed case studies from the most important aspects of making persons in the British and Irish Bronze Age... Brück weaves a captivating spell, she invites the reader to cast an enquiring eye at the British and Irish Bronze Age, an Age that in her retelling is rich with interwoven meaning, where breaking and forging things, materials, bodies, landscapes, becomes different tunes making up one mighty song. * Kristin Armstrong Oma, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, Norway, Norwegian Archaeological Review *
Personifying Prehistory: Relational Ontologies in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland is the culmination of two decades of work by a true leader in the field. The book is richly illustrated throughout with line drawings, mostly by Anne Leaver. This is the first book-length treatment of the British and Irish Bronze Age and is sure to become a standard text for scholars. * Rachel J. Crellin, University of Leicester, Cambridge Archaeological Journal *
The book is beautifully written, highly detailed, thought-provoking and extremely up to date...This is a richly textured book that I expect will stand the test of time; it is important reading for those interested in Bronze Age North-west Europe and for anyone seeking an excellent example of how to draw inferences about personhood and ontology from archaeological evidence. * Chris Fowler, Newcastle University, Antiquity *
If you want a book that emphasises the complex relations out of which the past emerges, that asks us to take the daily lives of ordinary people seriously, and which recognises that the simple oppositions we draw between people, things, animals, and places weremore complex in the past than we sometimes assume, then I cannot recommend this highly enough. * Oliver Harris, European Journal of Archaeology *
ISBN: 9780192858252
Dimensions: 216mm x 139mm x 14mm
Weight: 442g
320 pages