The Structure of Archaeological Knowledge and the Concept of Archaeological Culture: The Perspective of Actor-Network Theory

Keywords: archaeological culture, material culture, archaeological theory, actor-network theory, ontology, epistemology, assemblage.

Abstract

The paper deals with the concept of archaeological culture and the structure of archaeological knowledge in archaeological theory today. It aims to reconsider these basic concepts in light of the actor-network theory and integrate Ukrainian archaeological theorising into the global discourse by mobilising the theoretical advances around archaeological cultures. By doing that, we also want to contribute to the ethical and anthropocentric aspect of archaeological research and to create a provocation for bringing life to archaeological theorising in Ukraine.
First part of the paper is focused on the brief overview of the history of archaeological culture as a concept. Given that it was very different in various parts of the world, we separate the rise and fall of archaeological cultures in continental and Anglo-American studies and the history of archaeological theory in Soviet and post-Soviet countries. We compare these processes when relevant, but aim to describe the state of the art and its preconditions rather than provide a detailed historiographic overview. We then emphasise archaeological culture as a “strong theory,” highlighting its problematic status based on its strength.
Therefore, the second part of the contribution deals with the perspectives of the actor-network theory to enrich the concept of archaeological cultures by making it weaker and more adequate to the modern archaeological studies. We describe the history and the main agenda of the actor-network theory with the particular focus on the ways it can solve the problematic status of the archaeological culture.
In the last part of the paper we suggest a scheme to describe the structure of archaeological knowledge from the perspective of the actor-network theory. We explain the ways this new scheme “weakens” archaeological cultures and enables avoiding the positivistic dead end. Moreover, we link specific practices of archaeological research to the particular stage of the study and explain the ways archaeological cultures can remain the crucial category of archaeological studies without being a “toxic” and “strong” theory. This forms a strong basis for integrating the culture-grounded theorising in Ukraine with the advances of the Western archaeological theory today.

References

Aksonov, V. 2023. Shche raz pro yamni pokhovannia rannoserednovichnoho verkhnosaltivskoho katakombnoho mohylnyka. Arheologia, 1, p. 69-85. https://doi.org/10.15407/arheologia2023.01.069
Anikovich, M. V. 2010. Metodologiia arkheologii i novye podkhody k izucheniiu verkhnego paleolita Evrazii. Izbrannye lektsii. Novosibirsk: Novosibirskii gosudarstvennyi universitet.
Bashkatov, Yu. Yu., Bitkovska, T. V. 2021. Ivkivtsi — novyi typ piznozarubynetskykh pamiatok Serednoho Podniprovia. Arheologia, 2, p. 52-62. https://doi.org/10.15407/arheologia2021.02.052
Belikova, N. V. 2013. Evoliutsiia kategorii “Arkheologicheskaia kultura” v rabotakh otechestvennykh arkheologov. Vestnik Omskogo Universiteta, 4, p. 151-154.
Bochkarev, V. S. 1975. K voprosu o sisteme osnovnykh arkheologicheskikh poniatii. In: Mason, V. M., Boriaz, V. M. (eds.). Predmet i obieekt arkheologii i voprosy metodiki arkheologicheskikh issledovanii: materialy simpoziuma metodologicheskogo seminara LOIA AN SSSR. Leningrad: Nauka. p. 34-42.
Haskevych, D. L. 2022. Pro shche odnu kontseptsiiu “neolitu” iz rysamy postmodernizmu. Arheologia, 4, p. 105-119. https://doi.org/10.15407/arheologia2022.04.105
Gening, V. F. 1970. Istoriia naseleniia udmurtskogo Prikamia v pianoborskuiu epokhu. Voprosy arkheologii Urala, 10, p. 175-188.
Gening, V. F., Gening, V. V. 1992. Ocherki filosofii sotsioarkheologii. Kyiv: Telluo.
Gening, V. F., Smirnov, S. V., Zakharuk, Yu. L., Chernykh, L. A., Buniatian, E. V., Kolesnikov, A. K. 1988. Problemnaia situatsiia v sovremennoi arkheologii. Kyiv: Naukova dumka.
Heninh, V. F. 1992. Kontseptsiia “kultury” v arkheolohichnomu znanni (z istorii pytannia). Arheologia, 1, p. 4-16.
Hladkykh, M. I. 1991. Istorychna interpretatsiia piznoho paleolitu Ukrainy (za materialamy terytorii Ukrainy). Preprynt. Kyiv: NMK VO.
Hladkykh, M. I. 2002. Kultura arkheolohichna. In: Lytvyn, V. M. (ed.). Istorychna nauka: terminolohichnyi i poniatiinyi dovidnyk: navchalnyi posibnyk. Kyiv: Vyshcha shkola, p. 219-220.
Zhukov, B. S. 1927. Iz metodologii izucheniia kultur stoianok i gorodishch. In: Zhukov, B. S., Bader, O. N. (eds.). Materialy k doistorii Tsentralno-Promyshlennoi oblasti. Moscow: Tipografiia Serpukhovskogo Promtorga, p. 13-18.
Zalizniak, L. L. (ed.) 2005. Arkheolohiia Ukrainy: kurs lektsii: navchalnyi posibnyk dlia studentiv vyshchykh navchalnykh zakladiv. Kyiv: Lybid.
Klein, L. S. 1962. Katakombnye pamiatniki epokhi bronzy i problema vydeleniia arkheologicheskikh kultur. Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 2, p. 26-38.
Klein, L. S. 1991. Arkheologicheskaia tipologiia. Leningrad: Akademiia nauk SSSR.
Klein, L. S., Miniaev, S. S., Piotrovskii, Yu. Yu., Kheifets, O. I. 1970. Diskussiia o poniatii “arkheologicheskaia kultura” v problemnom arkheologicheskom seminare Leningradskogo universiteta. Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 2, p. 298-302.
Kolpakov, E. M. 2013. Klassifikatsiia v arkheologii. Sankt-Peterburg: IIMK RAN.
Kudriavtseva, O. M. 1987. Pro formuvannia poniattia “arkheolohichna kultura”, Arheologia, 58, p. 1-7.
Latur, B. 2015. Paster. Voina i mir mikrobov, s prilozheniem “Nesvodimogo”. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatelstvo Evropeiskogo universiteta.
Malieiev, Yu. M. 1999. Slovnyk arkheolohichnykh terminiv. Kyiv: Styl.
Masson, V. M., Bochkarev, V. S. 1973. K kharakteristike teoreticheskikh razrabotok zarubezhnoi arkheologii. Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituta arkheologii, 152, p. 36-42.
Pustovalov, S. Zh. 2005. Etnichna kontseptsiia arkheolohichnoi kultury (AK) ta suchasna praktyka vydilennia arkheolohichnykh kultur. Mahisterium, vol. 19. Kulturologia, p. 84-88.
Rychkov, M. O. 1990. Pro lokalni varianty arkheolohichnykh kultur. Arkheolohiia, 4, p. 12-20.
Rudych, T. 2022. Naselennia cherniakhivskoi kultury za materialamy mohylnyka Cherkasy-Tsentr (kraniolohichnyi aspekt). Arheologia, 1, p. 86-100. https://doi.org/10.15407/arheologia2022.01.086
Sydorovych, V. 2022. Nove pokhovannia pshevorskoi kultury u Zakhidnomu Pobuzhzhi. Arheologia, 1, p. 114-120. https://doi.org/10.15407/arheologia2022.01.114
Smirnov, A. P. 1964. K voprosu ob arkheologicheskoi kulture. Sovetskaia arkheologiia, 4, p. 3-10.
Smyrnov, S. V. 2003. Arkheolohichna kultura: superechlyvi momenty rozrobky problemy. Arheologia, 1, p. 7-20.
Faifert, A. V. 2022. Arkheologicheskaia kultura i struktura arkheologicheskoi nauki. Teoriia i praktika arkheologicheskikh issledovanii, 34(1), p. 9-29.
Chmykhov, M. O., Kravchenko, N. M., Cherniakov, I. T. 1992. Arkheolohiia ta starodavnia istoriia Ukrainy. Kyiv: Lybid.
Sher, Ia. A. 1966. Tipologicheskii metod v arkheologii i statistika. Doklady i soobshcheniia arkheologov SSSR na VII Mezhdunarodnom kongresse antropologicheskikh i etnograficheskikh nauk. Moscow: Nauka, p. 253-266.
Alberti, B. 2013. Archaeology and Ontologies of Scale. In: Alberti, B., Jones, A. M., Pollard, J. (eds.). Archaeology after Interpretation. Walnut Creek: Left Coast, p. 43-58.
Apel, K.-O. 1972. Transformation der Philosophie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Appadurai, A. (ed.). 1988. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Binford, L. R. 1967. Smudge Pits and Hide Smoking: the Use of Analogy in Archaeological Reasoning. American Antiquity, 32, p. 1-12.
Binford, L. R. 1972. An Archaeological Perspective. New York: Seminar Press.
Binford, L. R. 1965. Archaeological Systematics and the Study of Culture Process. American Antiquity, 31, p. 203-210.
Callon, M. 1986. Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St-Brieuc Bay. In: Law, J. (ed.). Power, Action, and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? London: Routledge, p. 196-233.
Callon, M. 2001. Actor-Network Theory. In: Smelser, N. J., Baltes, P. B. (eds.). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon, p. 62-66.
Callon, M., Latour, B. 1981. Unscrewing the Big Leviathan: How Actors Macro-Structure Reality and How Sociologists Help Them To Do So. In: Knorr-Cetina, K., Cicourel, A. V. (eds.). Advances in Social Theory and Methodology. Towards an Integration of Micro and Macro-Sociologies. London: Routledge, p. 277-303.
Callon, M., Latour, B. 1992. Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath School! A Reply to Collins and Yearley. In: Pickering, A. (ed.). Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, p. 343-368.
Childe, V. G. 1929. The Danube in Prehistory. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Cipolla, C. 2008. Signs of Identity, Signs of Memory. Archaeological Dialogues, 15(2), p. 196-215.
Cipolla, C. N., Crellin, R. J., Harris, O. J. T. 2021. Posthuman Archaeologies, Archaeological Posthumanisms. Journal of Posthumanism, 1(1), p. 5-21.
Clarke, D. 1973. Archaeology: The Loss of Innocence. Antiquity, 47(185), p. 6-18.
Clarke, D. L. 1968. Analytical Archaeology. London: Methuen.
De Cunzo, L. A., Roeber, C. D. 2022. Suitcases, Selfies, and the Global Environment: Material Culture, Materiality, and the New Materialism. In: De Cunzo, L. A., Roeber, C. D. (eds.). The Cambridge Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1-24.
Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. 2004. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Los Angeles: Continuum.
Furholt, M. 2020. Social Worlds and Communities of Practice: a Polythetic Culture Model for 3rd Millennium BC Europe in the Light of Current Migration Debates. Prehistoires Mediterraneennes [online], 8. Available at: http://journals.openedition.org/pm/2383 [Accessed 26 September 2024]. https://doi.org/10.4000/pm.2383.
Harman, G. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics. Melbourne: Re.press.
Hodder, I. 1982. Symbols in Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hodder, I. 2005. Post-Processual and Interpretive Archaeology. In: Renfrew, C., Bahn, P. (eds.). Archaeology: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, p. 207-212.
Hurcombe, L. 2014. Archaeological Artefacts as Material Culture. New York: Routledge.
Ingold, T. 1994. Preface. In: Ingold, T. (ed.). Companion Encyclopaedia of Anthropology: Humanity, Culture and Social Life. London: Routhledge, p. xiii–xxii.
Jones, A. M., Díaz-Guardamino, M., Crellin, R. J. 2016. From Artefact Biographies to ‘Multiple Objects’: A New Analysis of the Decorated Plaques of the Irish Sea Region. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 49(2), p. 113-133.
Kaiser, E. 2019. Das dritte Jahrtausend im osteuropäischen Steppenraum. Kulturhistorische Studien zu Prähistorischer Subsistenzwirtschaft und Interaktion Mit Benachbarten Räumen. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World, 37, S. 23-33.
Kossina, G. 1911. Die Herkunft der Germanen. Zur Methode der Siedlungarchaologie. Würzburg: Kurt Kabitzsch.
Latour, B. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. 1991. Technology is Society Made Durable. In: Law, J. (ed.). A Sociology of Monsters. New York: Routledge.
Latour, B. 1991. Technology is Society Made Durable. In: Law, J. (ed.). A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology and Domination. London: Routledge, p. 103-131.
Latour, B. 1992. Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts. In: Bijker, W. E., Law, J. (eds.). Shaping Technology / Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change. Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 225-258.
Latour, B. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. 1994. On Technical Mediation. Common Knowledge, 3(2), p. 33-66.
Latour, B. 1996. On Interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(4), p. 228-245.
Latour, B. 1999. On Recalling ANT. In: Law, J., Hassard, J. (eds.). Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 15-25.
Latour, B. 2004. Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Latour, B. 2013. An Inquiry into Modes of Existence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Law, J. 1986. On the Methods of Long-Distance Control: Vessels, Navigation and the Portuguese Route to India. In: Law, J. (ed.). Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge. London: Routledge; Kegan Paul Books, p. 234-263.
Law, J. 1987. Technology and Heterogeneous Engineering: The Case of Portuguese Expansion. In: Bijker, W. E., Hughes, T. P., Pinch, T. J. (eds.). The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 111-134.
Law, J. 2002. Aircraft Stories: Decentering the Object in Technoscience. Durham: Duke University Press.
Law, J. 2009. Actor Network Theory and Material Semiotics. In: Turner, B. S. (ed.). The New Blackwell Companion to Social Theory. Oxford: Blackwell, p. 141-158.
Law, J. 2008. Actor Network Theory and Material Semiotics. The new Blackwell companion to social theory. London: Blackwell, p. 141-158.
Law, J., Mol, A. 1995. Notes on Materiality and Sociality. The Sociological Review, 43(2), p. 274-294.
Lucas, G., Witmore, C. 2022. Paradigm Lost: What Is a Commitment to Theory in Contemporary Archaeology? Norwegian Archaeological Review, 55(1), p. 64-77.
Marres, N. 2012. Material Participation: Technology, the Environment and Everyday Publics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Marres, N., Guggenheim, M., Wilkie, A. 2018. Inventing the Social. Manchester: Mattering Press.
Miller, D. (ed.). 1995. Acknowledging Consumption: a review of new studies. London: Routledge.
Mol, A. 1999. Ontological Politics. A Word and Some Questions. In: Law, J., Hassard, J. (eds.). Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, p. 74-89.
Mol, A. 2002. The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice. Durham: Duke University Press.
Mol, A. 2008. The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice. London; New York: Routledge.
Mol, A. 2010. Actor-Network-Theory: Sensitive Terms and Enduring Tensions. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie. Sonderheft, 50(1), p. 253-269.
Müller, S. 1898. De jydske Enkeltgrave fra Stendalderen eller nyeste Undersogelser. Aarboger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, II(13), p. 157-282.
Nezabytovskyi, H., Radchenko, S. 2022. In Search of New Realm. Metamodern and Object-Oriented Ontology as Two Sides of Same Philosophy. Kοινὴ. The Almanac of Philosophical Essays, 3, p. 40-50.
Oakley, K. P. 1981. Emergence of Higher Thought 3.0–0.2 Ma B.P. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 292(1057), p. 205-211.
Olsen, B., Shanks, M., Webmoor, T., Witmore, C. 2012. Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. Berkeley: University of California.
Palienko, S. 2021. The Beginning of Soviet Theoretical Archaeology. History of Science and Technology, 11(1), p. 54-67.
Renfrew, A. C. 1977. Space, Time and Polity. In: Rowlands, M. J., Friedman, J. (eds.). The Evolution of Social Systems. London: Duckworth, p. 89-114.
Rickert, H. 1910. Kulturwissenschaft und Naturwissenschaft. Berlin: JCB Mohr.
Roberts, B. W., Vander Linden, M. (eds.). 2011. Investigating Archaeological Cultures. Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission. Dordrecht: Springer.
Roberts, B. W., Vander Linden, M. 2011. Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission. In: Roberts, B. W., Vander Linden, M. (eds.). Investigating Archaeological Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer, p. 1-22.
Taylor, W. W. 1948. A Study of Archaeology. American Anthropologist, 50(3), p. 2-7.
Thomas, J. S. 2015. The Future of Archaeological Theory. Antiquity, 89(348), p. 1287-1296.
Trigger, B. 1989. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Trigger, B. 1990. The History of African Archaeology in World Perspective. In: Robertshaw, P. (ed.). A History of African Archaeology. London: James Currey, p. 309-319.
Trigger, B. 2006. A History of Archaeological Thought (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Willey, G. R., Phollops, P. 1958. Method and Theory in American Archaeology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Yates, J. 2022. Materiality. In: De Cunzo, L. A., Roeber, C. D. The Cambridge Handbook of Material Culture Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 27-51.

Abstract views: 960
PDF Downloads: 480
Published
2024-12-23
Section
Discussions