What Do Objects Want?

Abstract

This paper develops an argument for the agency of objects, looking at the effects objects have on people. Groups of related objects, such as pots or metal ornaments, create stylistic universes which affect producers and users of new objects, bound by the canons of style. For an object to be socially powerful in a recognized manner, the form of the object lays down certain rules of use which influence the sensory and emotional impacts of the object. Formal properties of artifacts are influenced by the genealogy of the object class, including historical continuities and changes, and also its perceived source. The forms of objects, the historical trajectories of the class of objects and their perceived sources combine to have social effects on people, shaping people as socially effective entities. Britain's incorporation into the Roman Empire between 150 BC and AD 200 provides an excellent case study through which to look at the changing corpora of objects, which had continuities and changes in form, a set of subtle attributions of sources and a complex range of social effects. KEY WORDS: effects; form; Roman Britain.My attempt in this article is to explore what might be called an object-centered approach to agency. It is often assumed that society is created and reproduced through the actions of human agents who are shaped and constrained by the broader society in which they live. For the prehistorian, the active human subject is a problematical entity, but artifacts are often abundant, although not totally unproblematical as we shall see. There are a number of strands of thought within archaeology and outside which explore the effects that things have on people and I would like to use these to start thinking about the obligations objects place upon us when they are operating as a group. I shall use the incorporation of Britain into the Roman Empire as a brief case study within which to explore these ideas a little more. Periods of change are important in bringing out the relationships

Technology Studies and Material Culture Studies: Possibilities of Cooperation in the Case of Bone Artefacts

“…Iz ovoga sledi i pitanje biografije predmeta, predstavljene u radu I. Kopitofa (Kopytoff 1986). Ovaj pristup podrazumeva da predmeti ne mogu da se razumeju kao pasivni i inertni, već veoma promenljivi i aktivni činioci koji direktno utiču na ljude i konstruisanje kulture i identiteta (Gosden 2005), čije "biografije" se stalno menjaju i dopunjavaju. Ove promene, tokom kojih jedan isti predmet može da igra drugačije uloge, vide se kroz operativni lanac (posmatrano u okviru jednog društva), gde faze proizvodnje, razmene ili potrošnje predstavljaju potpuno različite kontekste koji moraju pojedinačno da se sagledaju da bi se razumela celina (kompletna biografija).…”

Materialidad, naturaleza y cosmovisión en la cerámica purépecheca de Huáncito, Mioxacán, México

“…Su capacidad de afectar y actuar sobre los humanos no puede reducirse a nuestro ineludible enredo con las cosas, sino que está fundada en las propias cualidades materiales de los objetos (Olsen et al 2012). Chris Gosden (2005) piensa que los objetos tienen agencia, considerando los efectos que tienen sobre la gente. Grupos de objetos interrelacionados, por ejemplo vasijas de barro u ornamentos de metal, generan universos estilísticos que afectan a los productores y a los usuarios, quienes están restringidos por los cánones estilísticos.…”

“…Grupos de objetos interrelacionados, por ejemplo vasijas de barro u ornamentos de metal, generan universos estilísticos que afectan a los productores y a los usuarios, quienes están restringidos por los cánones estilísticos. Un objeto puede ser un elemento poderoso de la sociedad cuando se adhiere a ciertas reglas de uso que influencian su impacto sensorial y emocional (Gosden 2005).…”

Mobility and African archaeology: an introduction

“…This larger movement to re-activate the material world is one that has become increasingly prominent in archaeology, as the enchainment of objects, things, people and places is re-negotiated as we ask 'what do objects want' (cf. Gosden 2005). The emergence of a 'symmetrical archaeology' that rebalances the relationship between the material and human world (e.g.…”