Critique of Archaeological Reason
THEMES
Agency
Giorgio Buccellati, March 2016
The notion of agency
Intentionality
Inertia
Agency and actoriality
Materiality
Relationship to philosophy
Relationship to sociology
Relationship to the Critique
References
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The notion of agency
The term "agency" as currently used is derived from the notion of "agent" as in "chemical agent" or "bonding agent." It refers to the potential of an inert and non-active element to condition other elements and to affect them even deeply.
There is an implicit antinomy in this notion of agency. On the one hand the agent is inert and non-active, and on the other it "acts" in the sense that it conditions and affects another element.
This ambiguity is recognized in that the notion of agency explicitly takes into account the absence of intentionality. And yet, while it is clear that intentionality marks the contrast between human and non-human agency, the contrast is bypassed in order to underline the effectiveness of the non-human agent. It is as if the metaphor were made to emerge as reality. In other words, the notion of agency is sublimated to include agents that are recognized as being vastly different precisely in their mode of acting. Hence the ambiguity, which should be clarified.
We must therefore look closely at the two horns of the dilemma.
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Intentionality
Let us first turn to the notion of intentionality. With regard to material agency, we may point to two specific moments, motivation and control.
First, a non-human agent is not self-motivated, but is rather motivated mechanically. A bonding agent bonds because it has been placed at the interface of two elements. It does not on its own seek to achieve such goal.
Second, a non-human agent does not gain control of another element for its own benefit. Thus a bonding agent "controls" the two elements that are bonded only in the sense that it affects them as it joins them one to the other, but in the process it does not increase its own worth.
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Inertia
Heidegger
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Agency and actoriality
Given the presumption inherent in the fact that the term "agency" is
intentionality
control and benefit
material culture (found archaeologically) as conditioning
traces of agency: the material item as agent
if things condition us, when we only have things (broken traditions) we can get to the "us" of the past -- this he does not seem to develop; where is the archaeological reason's approach? (he does not have the equivalent of the UGR)
check on my point about entrances with a porch or not - and refer to Hodder's: we can say that things "guide" the archaeological inferential argument
conditioning may be then be seen as the answer to the question about inertia: things are not inert because they condition, they set limits to control
inertia = lack of control
control = producing self benefit
useful overview of literature
entangl. as extension of bracing?
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Materiality
The stress on the significance of the material, or of the "things," is indicative of what I would call an unfocused awareness of the central problems of the critique. There is awareness because the search for the material dimension steers attention in the direction of what archaeology is primarily working with. But it is not sufficiently focused, because it does nnot aim to articulate fully and systematically the implications leading to the definition of the unique properties of archaeological reason.
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Relationship to philosophy
Heidegger
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Relationship to sociology
Giddens
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Relationship to the Critique
Knappett&Malafouris 2008
Significantly, the stress on getting away from an anthropocentric point of view relates very directly to a central theme of the Critique. The anthropocentric emphasis applies very directly to what I call the world of inference: philosphy, sociology, etc. applied to data that are taken for granted. To take the material culture seriously means (1) giving pride of place to emplacement, and (2) giving an equal (if derived) pride of place to the traces in material data.
emplacement is the primordial materiality
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References
Knappet and Malafouris
Appadurai
Gell
Dobres and Robb
Hodder Entanglement
"Quando" Themes affecting presence
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