In Defense of Things: Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects

215 Pages·2010·1.99 MB·English

by  Bjornar Olsen

In Defense of Things
ARCHAEOLOGY IN SOCIETY SERIES
SERIES EDITORS
Ian Hodder, Stanford University
Robert W. Preucel, University of Pennsylvania
In recent decades, archaeology has expanded beyond a narrow focus on
economics and environmental adaptation to address issues of ideology,
power, and meaning. These trends, sometimes termed “postprocessual,”
deal with both the interpretation of the past and the complex and politi-
cally charged interrelationships of past and present. Today, archaeology
is responding to and incorporating aspects of the debates on identity,
meaning, and politics currently being explored in varying fields: social
anthropology, sociology, geography, history, linguistics, and psychology.
There is a growing realization that ancient studies and material culture
can be aligned within the contemporary construction of identities under
the rubrics of nationalism, ethnoscapes, and globalization. This interna-
tional series will help connect the contemporary practice of archaeology
with these trends in research and, in the process, demonstrate the rel-
evance of archaeology to related fields and society in general.
Volumes in this series:
In Defense of Things, Bjørnar Olsen (2010)
Appropriated Pasts: Indigenous Peoples and the Colonial Culture of Archaeol-
ogy, Ian J. McNiven and Lynette Russell (2005)
Archaeology of Performance: Theatre, Power, and Community, edited by
Takeshi Inomata and Lawrence S. Coben (2005)
Collaboration in Archaeological Practice: Engaging Descendant Communities,
edited by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh and T.J. Ferguson (2007)
Archaeology and the Postcolonial Critique, edited by Matthew Liebmann and
Uzma Z. Rizvi (2008)
The Social Construction of Communities: Agency, Structure, and Identity in the
Prehispanic Southwest, edited by Mark D. Varien and James M. Potter
(2008)
Dwelling, Identity, and the Maya: Relational Archaeology at Chunchucmil, by
Scott Hutson (2009)
In Defense of Things
Archaeology and the
Ontology of Objects
Bjørnar Olsen
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Published by AltaMira Press
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Copyright © 2010 by AltaMira Press
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Olsen, Bjørnar.
In defense of things: Archaeology and the ontology of objects / Bjørnar Olsen.
p. cm. — (Archaeology in society series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7591-1930-7 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7591-1932-1
(electronic)
1. Archaeology—Philosophy. 2. Material culture. 3. Landscape.
4. Phenomenology. 5. Actor-network theory. I. Title.
CC72.O48 2010
930.101—dc22 2010000867
(cid:2)
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
1 Introduction 1
2 Brothers in Arms? Archaeology and Material Culture
Studies 21
3 Material Culture as Text: Scenes from a Troubled
Engagement 39
4 The Phenomenology of Things 63
5 Tacit Matter: The Silencing of Things 89
6 Temporality and Memory: How Things Remember 107
7 Living with Things: Matter in Place 129
8 In Defense of Things 151
Notes 175
References 179
Index 197
About the Author 203
v

List of Illustrations
Fig. 1.1. “Societies or nation-states are not cognitive sketches
resting in the minds of people; they are real entities
solidly built and well tied together.” Walltown Crags
(Hadrian’s Wall), Northumberland, UK (photo:
Alfredo González-Ruibal). 4
Fig. 1.2. “If there is one historical trajectory running all the
way down from Olduvai Gorge to Postmodernia, it
must be one of increased mixing: that more and more
tasks are delegated to nonhuman actors, and more
and more actions are mediated by things.” Bay Bridge
and San Francisco (photo: Wernher Krutein/
photovault.com). 10
Fig. 2.1. Landscapes—what difference do they make to the
way we live, think, and act? Integrated living,
southern Iceland (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 30
Fig. 2.2. “And it seems possible to say very little in these
studies about the dull, ordinary, and inconspicuous
materiality that people constantly engage with. . . .
How do we ‘sublate’ a coal mine or a derelict town in
the Russian North?” Apartment house, Lovozero,
Kola Peninsula, Russia (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 33
Fig. 3.1. “Consider the biography of a Neolithic megalith.”
Megalith tomb of Dombate, Galicia, Spain (photo:
Alfredo González-Ruibal). 48
vii
viii List of Illustrations
Fig. 3.2. “This ‘conversation’ is not intellectual rhetoric; it can
be activated only by a ‘physiognometic’ dialogue that
restores to things their own materiality, allowing them
to speak to us in their own language.” Leftover
machinery in the abandoned mining town of
Pyramiden, Svalbard, Norway (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 51
Fig. 3.3. “Many of us inspired by poststructuralism all too
easily came to ignore the differences between things
and text.” Stranded vessel, Hópsnes, Iceland (photo:
Bjørnar Olsen). 60
Fig. 4.1. “In this mode, we do not ‘see’ the thing, but are
practically and skillfully involved with it.” Uniting
with the kayak, West Greenland, ca. 1880 (photo:
M. P. Porsild). 70
Fig. 4.2. “Bad things, on the other hand, have no soul to lose.
They never become ‘homesick’ since they have always
been part of a serviceable Bestand.” Harbor
installations in abandoned mining town of Pyramiden,
Svalbard, Norway (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 83
Fig. 4.3. Lakes, rivers, valleys, mountains, and sea: rock surface
as meaningful microtopography. Hjemmeluft, Alta,
Arctic Norway (photo: Karin Tansem). 86
Fig. 5.1. “New styles and materials became associated with
the ‘vulgar’ works of engineers.” Glass meets iron and
stone, Palace of the National Bank, Bucharest,
Romania (photo: Elin Myrvoll). 93
Fig. 5.2. Already blurred? Sámi sacred site, Seitjaur, Kola
Peninsula, Russia (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 100
Fig. 6.1. “Despite the fact that much of it may have ceased to
be useful, and maybe never will be actualized as
recollections or in habits, it has not ceased to be.”
Window ledge assemblage in the abandoned mining
town of Pyramiden, Svalbard, Norway (photo:
Bjørnar Olsen). 119
Fig. 6.2. “Things themselves also assign or ‘instruct’ a certain
bodily behavior. They require certain formalized skills
to actualize their competences.” Music studio in the
abandoned mining town of Pyramiden, Svalbard,
Norway (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 123
Fig. 7.1. “A fisherman is not just a person, a human body
equipped with a mind.” Cod fishing, Lofoten,
Norway, 1956 (photo: NTB/Scanpix). 137
List of Illustrations ix
Fig 7.2. “To act is to mobilize an entire company of actors.”
Launching a small actor company, West Greenland,
ca. 1906 (unknown photographer; Heims’s collection). 142
Fig. 7.3. Man, kayak, and hunting gear, Narsaq Kujalleq,
Nanortalik, West Greenland, 1911. The man’s kayak
suit (tuilik), made of softened, water-resistant seal
skin, was sewn as a hooded jacket with drawstrings.
These secured the suit around the face and wrists and
fastened the bottom opening tightly around the
coaming of the kayak cockpit. When the man was
seated and strapped in, he and the kayak operated as
a unit, with all hunting gear (weapons, float, lines,
etc.) mounted within easy reach (photo: John Møller). 148
Fig. 8.1. “Habitual use is not ‘trivial,’ in the derogatory sense
of the word; it implies knowledge, care, and respect
for what objects are in their own being.” Persistent
tools at Lyngmo farm, Arctic Norway (photo: Bjørnar
Olsen). 154
Fig. 8.2. The existential importance of things is most
dramatically disclosed in those exceptional cases in
which entire thing environments are lost or disturbed.
The ruined fishing village of Berlevåg, Arctic Norway,
after the German withdrawal in 1944 (photo:
Krigsarkivet/Scanpix). 160
Fig. 8.3. “Even when things are discarded, destroyed, and
demolished, something is nearly always left—in other
words, gathered.” Lyngmo farm, Arctic Norway
(photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 167
Fig. 8.4. Stranded Skoda in the field, Lyngmo farm, Arctic
Norway (photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 168
Fig. 8.5. Revealed privacy, Lyngmo farm, Arctic Norway
(photo: Bjørnar Olsen). 171