Archaeologies of Ontology

Posted: 27 Oct 2016

See all articles by Benjamin Alberti

Benjamin Alberti

Framingham State University - Department of Sociology

Date Written: October 2016

Abstract

Bruno Latour and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro provided the initial impetus for explicitly ontological research in archaeology. Their impact on archaeologists, however, has been quite different. What I call the “metaphysical archaeologists” trace their genealogy from Latour, though they are now equally influenced by “new materialism” and the “new ontological realism” ( Gabriel 2015 ). They have introduced an alternative metaphysical orthodoxy to archaeology. In contrast, Viveiros de Castro and colleagues have authorized the return of the grand ethnographic analogy to archaeology, particularly in the case of animism. A second, quite different tendency inspired by these same anthropologists is to engage with indigenous ideas as theories to reconfigure archaeological concepts and practice. I suggest that a point of convergence between the metaphysical and the latter anthropological approaches exists in their focus on the concept of alterity.

Suggested Citation

Alberti, Benjamin, Archaeologies of Ontology (October 2016). Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 45, pp. 163-179, 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2858843 or http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102215-095858

Benjamin Alberti (Contact Author)

Framingham State University - Department of Sociology ( email )

Framingham, MA 01701
United States

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