Objects Untimely
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Objects Untimely
Objects generate time; time does not generate or change objects. That is the central thesis of this book by the philosopher Graham Harman and the archaeologist Christopher Witmore, who defend radical positions in their respective fields. Against a current and pervasive conviction that reality consists of an unceasing flux – a view associated in philosophy with New Materialism – object-oriented ontology asserts that objects of all varieties are the bedrock of reality from which time emerges. And against the narrative convictions of time as the course of historical events, the objects and encounters associated with archaeology push back against the very temporal delimitations which defined the field and its objects ever since its professionalization in the nineteenth century. In a study ranging from the ruins of ancient Corinth, Mycenae, and Troy to debates over time from Aristotle and al-Ash‘ari through Henri Bergson and Alfred North Whitehead, the authors draw on alternative conceptions of time as retroactive, percolating, topological, cyclical, and generational, as consisting of countercurrents or of a surface tension between objects and their own qualities. Objects Untimely invites us to reconsider the modern notion of objects as inert matter serving as a receptacle for human categories.
Shadow Archaeologies
Shadow Archaeologies explores the modes of knowledge production which operate where the light of mainstream, historically oriented archaeology does not reach. It exposes the field’s underbelly and dwells on issues that standard practice ignores or glosses over, questioning what archaeology and the archaeological are or could be. The volume brings together scholars working at the discipline’s theoretical cutting edge to challenge mainstream archaeology in various ways. They engage with the political dimensions of the discipline’s mode of production, develop alternate practices, and conceive of other manifestations of the archaeological object, thus illuminating various ways in which the concept of shadow archaeology can be articulated. After an introduction by the editors, the volume is organised into three parts, which address from different angles the politics, practices, and objects of an archaeology that resides in the shadow of antiquity. While the book will appeal to any archaeologist with an interest in theory, it is also a challenge to all archaeologists to reflect on their discipline and their own working practices and an invitation to join in the discussion about what archaeology might become.
Rethinking Historical Time
Is time out of joint? For the past two centuries, the dominant Western time regime has been future-oriented and based on the linear, progressive and homogeneous concept of time. Over the last few decades, there has been a shift towards a new, present-oriented regime or 'presentism', made up of multiple and percolating temporalities. Rethinking Historical Time engages with this change of paradigm, providing a timely overview of cutting-edge interdisciplinary approaches to this new temporal condition. Marek Tamm and Laurent Olivier have brought together an international team of scholars working in history, anthropology, archaeology, geography, philosophy, literature and visual studies to rethink the epistemological consequences of presentism for the study of past and to discuss critically the traditional assumptions that underpin research on historical time. Beginning with an analysis of presentism, the contributors move on to explore in historical and critical terms the idea of multiple temporalities, before presenting a series of case studies on the variability of different forms of time in contemporary material culture.