Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue

Over the last decades, some archaeologists have adopted the approaches from philosophy and anthropology that may loosely be denoted by the term new materialism. The key assumptions are that archaeological investigation, regardless of the theoretical stance applied, has always been burdened by the m...

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Autor principal:	Staša Babić
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR SR
Publicado:	University of Belgrade 2019
Materias:	new materialism ontological turn stratigraphy archaeological record Anthropology GN1-890
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/011f6fdd2bc5498ea9e6b6485aa832c4
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:011f6fdd2bc5498ea9e6b6485aa832c4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:011f6fdd2bc5498ea9e6b6485aa832c42021-12-02T05:38:30ZArchaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue10.21301/eap.v14i3.40353-15892334-8801https://doaj.org/article/011f6fdd2bc5498ea9e6b6485aa832c42019-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://eap-iea.org/index.php/eap/article/view/990https://doaj.org/toc/0353-1589https://doaj.org/toc/2334-8801 Over the last decades, some archaeologists have adopted the approaches from philosophy and anthropology that may loosely be denoted by the term new materialism. The key assumptions are that archaeological investigation, regardless of the theoretical stance applied, has always been burdened by the modern mode of thinking and dichotomies such as nature/culture or subject/object, wherefrom stems the anthropocentric approach to the study of objects, primarily in respect to humans. It is suggested that the reality consists of a plethora of diverse elements, all deserving equal attention and all their existences being of equal relevance. Objects, animals, plants, all have the potential to act in a network of equal actors. A researcher must therefore respect the flat ontology, where none of the actors has primacy. The paper problematizes some of the (un)intentional implications of the ontological turn for the theory and practice of archaeology. First of all, the proposed flattening destabilizes the key disciplinary distinction – study of the human past through its material remains. The downplaying of the importance of human actions in the formation of networks of mutually equal actors at the same time downplays the human responsibility. In this way, various forms of inequality among humans as research priorities and the potential of social engagement of archaeology are neglected. Similar critique of new materialism is raised in the fields of philosophy and anthropology as well. This brings about the issue of interdisciplinary transfers of thin descriptions – selective adoption of concepts whose full implications remain neglected. Staša BabićUniversity of Belgradearticlenew materialismontological turnstratigraphyarchaeological recordAnthropologyGN1-890ENFRSREtnoantropološki Problemi, Vol 14, Iss 3 (2019)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR SR
topic	new materialism ontological turn stratigraphy archaeological record Anthropology GN1-890
spellingShingle	new materialism ontological turn stratigraphy archaeological record Anthropology GN1-890 Staša Babić Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
description	Over the last decades, some archaeologists have adopted the approaches from philosophy and anthropology that may loosely be denoted by the term new materialism. The key assumptions are that archaeological investigation, regardless of the theoretical stance applied, has always been burdened by the modern mode of thinking and dichotomies such as nature/culture or subject/object, wherefrom stems the anthropocentric approach to the study of objects, primarily in respect to humans. It is suggested that the reality consists of a plethora of diverse elements, all deserving equal attention and all their existences being of equal relevance. Objects, animals, plants, all have the potential to act in a network of equal actors. A researcher must therefore respect the flat ontology, where none of the actors has primacy. The paper problematizes some of the (un)intentional implications of the ontological turn for the theory and practice of archaeology. First of all, the proposed flattening destabilizes the key disciplinary distinction – study of the human past through its material remains. The downplaying of the importance of human actions in the formation of networks of mutually equal actors at the same time downplays the human responsibility. In this way, various forms of inequality among humans as research priorities and the potential of social engagement of archaeology are neglected. Similar critique of new materialism is raised in the fields of philosophy and anthropology as well. This brings about the issue of interdisciplinary transfers of thin descriptions – selective adoption of concepts whose full implications remain neglected.
format	article
author	Staša Babić
author_facet	Staša Babić
author_sort	Staša Babić
title	Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
title_short	Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
title_full	Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
title_fullStr	Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
title_full_unstemmed	Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue
title_sort	archaeological stratigraphy, flat ontology and thin description. a note on (inter)disciplinary dialogue
publisher	University of Belgrade
publishDate	2019
url	https://doaj.org/article/011f6fdd2bc5498ea9e6b6485aa832c4
work_keys_str_mv	AT stasababic archaeologicalstratigraphyflatontologyandthindescriptionanoteoninterdisciplinarydialogue
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Archaeological Stratigraphy, Flat Ontology and Thin Description. A Note on (Inter)disciplinary Dialogue

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