Archaeological Networks and Social Interaction focuses on conceptualisations of human interaction, human-thing entanglement, material affordances and agency.
Network concepts in the archaeological discipline are ubiquitous these days. They range from loose concepts, used as metaphors to address a notion of connectivity, to highly formal and mathematically complex predictions of human behaviour. These different networked worlds sometimes clash and rarely converge. Archaeologists interested in network analysis, however, have achieved a much better understanding of the implications of adopting formal methods for studying social interaction and there have been theoretical advancements realising a better synergy between different theoretical perspectives. These nascent concerns are explored further in this volume with regional specialists exploring case studies from Prehistory to the Middle Ages throughout the Ancient and New Worlds, outlining how formal network approaches contribute to studying social interaction archaeologically.
This book will be of interest to archaeologists wishing to access the latest research on networks and interconnectivity and how these approaches have been productively modified to archaeological research.
Author(s): Lieve Donnellan
Series: Routledge Studies in Archaeology
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: xviii+220
Archaeological Networks and Social Interaction
Table of contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Archaeological networks and social interaction
Networks in archaeology
The spatial focus
Networks of interaction
Framing the micro scale
References
2 Relational concepts and challenges to network analysis in social archaeology
Introduction
A Melanesian ontology of face-to-face networks
A Classical ontology?
Gothic ontology and sympathy among things
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
3 Entangled identities: Processes of status construction in late Urnfield burials
Introduction
Bronze Age elites at the dawn of the Iron Age
The late Urnfield culture (Ha B3)
Elite identity in Late Urnfield graves
Strathernograms and funeral identity construction
Translating aspects of identity into network models
Attributes on nodes or ties
Complementary networks
Multi-modal networks
Conclusion
Notes
References
4 Distributed feasts: Reciprocity, hospitality and banquets in Iron Age to Orientalising central and southern Italy
Introduction
The origins of the gift
Strathern’s The Gender of the Gift: distributed personhood, Melanesia and Strathernograms
Defining the feast
Feasting and reciprocity in Homeric epic
Visualising the feast: Strathernograms and reciprocity
Applying Gell’s Strathernograms: feasting in Early Iron Age and Orientalising Lazio and Campania
References
5 Marble networks: Social interaction in houses at Pompeii
Introduction
The Roman house and social assumptions for the network analysis
Network dataset
Discussion of network graphs for all houses
Discussion of network graphs for Regio I: the case of atria with impluvia
The results of the network analysis for all houses
Final remarks – networks, social interaction and marble decoration at Pompeii
Notes
References
6 Objects that bind, objects that separate
Introduction
Setting the scene
Framing interaction
The lives of Pithekoussan objects
Drinking cups
Oinochoai
Oil containers
Pithekoussan interactions
Conclusion
Notes
References
7 A complex beadwork: Bead trade and trade beads in Scandinavia ca. 800–1000 AD revisited
Introduction
Beads and bead trade
‘Trade beads and bead trade’ – unplugged
‘Trade beads and bead trade’ – digitally remastered
Beadwork dynamics
Networks compared
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Note
References
8 Social network analysis and the social interactions that define Hopewell
Introduction
Methods and materials
Results
All lithics network
Middle Distance Scale (Wyandotte, Knox, Burlington)
Distant Exotics Scale
Discussion
Acknowledgements
References
9 Terrestrial communication networks and political agency in Early Iron Age Central Italy (950–500 BCE): A bottom-up approach
Introduction
Theory and methodology
Case studies and data
Case studies
Data
Analyses
Discussion of the results
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Notes
References
Index
