Anti-Anthropos: On the Promise of a More-Than-Human Archaeology

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Oliver Harris, University of Leicester, UK Over the last twenty years, archaeology has seen a host of theoretical ‘turns’, with emphasis being placed variously on ontology, materials, object-oriented approaches, relations and more. One of the critical issues here has been the question of the human: has archaeology managed to fully historicise what it means to be human in the past? Is this a worthwhile goal, and what would we need to do to achieve this? In this lecture, I evaluate the potentials for an archaeology that takes a radically immanent approach to the past, with consequences for how it explores the role of materials, time and human beings.

Participants & Organizers

University of Colorado Boulder Department of Anthropology(Organizer, Host)

<a href="https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/about" class="small text-muted">https://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/about</a>

Anthropology is the study of humans and our biological relatives across time and space. It is the only field to address the diversity of the human experience in its biological, cultural, and historical contexts. The discipline necessarily incorporates a wide range of theoretical and methodological traditions, drawing on and contributing to approaches in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. It is the breadth of our vision of what it means to be human, as well as the breadth of our theoretical and methodological approaches, that constitute our unique mission and role within the university. We feel it is of crucial importance to communicate this broad vision of diversity and complexity to students so that they come to have a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.