Mindful technology: unleashing the <i>chaîne opératoire</i> for an archaeology of mind

Schlanger, Nathan

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511598388.015

Cited by 108 publications

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“…In terms of current literature, these extend to (a) technological processes and the chaîne opératoire (e.g. Dobres 1999;Schlanger 1994;LeroiGourhan 1964); (b) the organisation of production and the identities of potters (e.g. Neupert 2007;Hurcombe 2000;Senior 2000;Roux and Matarasso 1999;Rice 1996bRice , 1991Mills 1995;Costin 1991;Wright 1991); (c) technological change (e.g.…”

Section: Characterisation Of the An Sơn Ceramic Assemblagementioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern Vietnam: The Role of Ceramics and Potters at An Son

Sarjeant¹

2014

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terra australis 42Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present. Dewey Number: 666.09597 List of volumes in Terra AustralisCopyright of the text remains with the authors, 2014. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher.Cover image courtesy of C. Sarjeant.Back cover map: Hollandia Nova. Thevenot 1663 by courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Reprinted with permission of the National Library of Australia. The excavations at An Sơn were funded by a Discovery Grant from the Australian Research Council. My own research was funded by the Australian Postgraduate Award.The analysis of the ceramic fabrics was conducted with SEM-EDX at the Electron Microscopy Unit at The Australian National University, with guidance from Frank Brink. I would also like to thank Glenn Summerhayes for teaching me the benefits and methods of SEM and the electron microprobe.There are a number of people I would like to recognise for their support over the past few years. Charles Higham has always offered advice and provided useful information over the years, even after departing the University of Otago after my Master's. Nigel Chang initially invited me to Ban Non Wat eight years ago, and allowed me to visit again to review the more recent neolithic discoveries in 2009. Fiorella Rispoli and Roberto Ciarla shared their knowledge of the neolithic in central Vietnam, and Fiorella's wealth of knowledge on ceramics has always been a reference for me. Lâm Thị Mỹ Dung opened up the ceramic collections at the University of Hanoi to me in 2009, which offered some valuable comparative ideas for this monograph. Louise Cort and Joyce White organised a workshop on Southeast Asian ceramics in Washington, DC and Philadelphia in 2010; an event from which I gained much inspiration and I feel privileged to have been a part of it. I would also like to acknowledge those individuals from afar who were interested in my research -it helped to keep the inspiration going, so thanks to Andreas Reinecke, Nishimura Masanari, and those I met at conferences over these past few years.Closer to home, I would like to thank Anna Willis for her knowledge about mortuary ritual at An Sơn. I am also grateful for the new insights into southern Vietnamese archaeology after working alongside Philip Piper at Rạch Núi. Thanks to Judith Cameron who was so supp...

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Section: Characterisation Of the An Sơn Ceramic Assemblagementioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern Vietnam: The Role of Ceramics and Potters at An Son

Sarjeant¹

2014

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“…As Bourdieu (1977: 79) has it, '[i]t is because subjects do not, strictly speaking, know what they are doing that what they do has more meaning than they know'. Abandoning the quest for 'meaning-in-their-heads', archaeology could build on a variety of tried-and-tested methods to retrieve context-dependent practices (Dobres and Robb 2005): chaîne opératoire approaches (Dobres 2000;Dobres and Hoffman 1994;Edmonds 1990;Schlanger 1994), behavioural chains (Skibo and Schiffer 2008), contextual analyses (Hodder and Hutson 2003: 170-187), etc. This is not the place for an exhaustive theoretical critique of practice theory (see Baber 1991;Smith 2001;Throop and Murphy 2002).…”

Section: Relational Constellations In Theory Materials Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1). A loose chaîne opératoire (Dobres 2000;Dobres and Hoffman 1994;Edmonds 1990;Schlanger 1994) or behavioural chain (Skibo and Schiffer 2008) approach can chart the latitude of variation within production practices. Do the relations within and between production sequences align closely or not?…”

Section: Relational Constellations and Their Historical Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historicising Material Agency: from Relations to Relational Constellations

Oyen

2015

J Archaeol Method Theory

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Relational approaches have gradually been changing the face of archaeology over the last decade: analytically, through formal network analysis, and interpretively, with various frameworks of human-thing relations. Their popularity has been such, however, that it threatens to undermine their relevance. If everyone agrees that we should understand past worlds by tracing relations, then 'finding relations' in the past becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Focusing primarily on the interpretive approaches of material culture studies, this article proposes to counter the threat of irrelevance by not just tracing human-thing relations but characterising how sets of relations were ordered. Such ordered sets are termed 'relational constellations'. The article describes three relational constellations and their consequences based on practices of ceramic fine ware production in the Western Roman provinces (first century BC-third century AD): the fluid, the categorical and the rooted constellation. Specifying relational constellations allows reconnecting material culture to specific historical trajectories and offers scope for meaningful cross-cultural comparisons. As such, a small theoretical addition based on the existing toolbox of practice-based approaches and relational thought can impact on historical narratives and can save relational frameworks from the danger of triviality.In an era of archaeological scholarship without-or beyond-master narratives (Hegmon 2003;Wylie 1993), one of the closest things to a paradigm shift over the last decade has been the adoption of relational approaches. The 'relational turn' has affected both analytical models, such as formal network analysis, and more interpretive J Archaeol Method Theory

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“…The artisan is capable of implementing a number of different strategies to create a particular artifact (Edmonds 1990). The knapper therefore constantly evaluates the current situation and chooses, from the methods at his or her disposal, the one which is preferable and possible, a decision which implies continuous mental assessment of possible consequences (Karlin and Julien 1994;Schlanger 1994).…”

Section: Tool Behavior As Sequence Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Practice Make Perfect? Craft Expertise as a Factor in Aggrandizer Strategies

Olausson

2008

J Archaeol Method Theory

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The focus of this article is on exploring craft expertise and its potential as a factor in aggrandizer strategies. It is argued that there are elements of natural aptitude which enabled certain individuals to excel at flintknapping, allowing them to create objects of exceptional size and beauty in acts of elaborate knapping. Practice alone will enable an individual to reach a certain level of proficiency, but only practice in combination with ability can result in world-class performance. If, as is argued, native ability in some domain is a rare commodity, then harnessing it and developing it through practice would provide an opportunity for a potential aggrandizer to control prestige goods and accrue social capital. In situations where raw material, knowledge, and know-how are ubiquitous, as may have been true for flint technology in southern Scandinavia during the Late Neolithic, this might be one of few means available for a would-be aggrandizer to control prestigious goods.

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Mindful technology: unleashing the chaîne opératoire for an archaeology of mind

Cited by 108 publications

References 0 publications

Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern Vietnam: The Role of Ceramics and Potters at An Son

Contextualising the Neolithic Occupation of Southern Vietnam: The Role of Ceramics and Potters at An Son

Historicising Material Agency: from Relations to Relational Constellations

Does Practice Make Perfect? Craft Expertise as a Factor in Aggrandizer Strategies

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