CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposed session for TAG 2000 (Oxford)
Session organizers
Jacqui Mulville (English Heritage, Oxford University Museum, Parks Road,
Oxford OX1 3PW. E-mail: [log in to unmask]) & Mark Pluciennik
(Department of Archaeology, University of Wales, Lampeter, Ceredigion
SA48
7ED, Wales, UK. E-mail: [log in to unmask])
All or nothing: human existence and subsistence
For much of prehistory and perhaps especially for hunter-gatherers,
materialist perspectives and especially those related to subsistence
still
dominate. In Britain this may be seen partly as the legacy of the
Higgsian
'palaeoeconomy' school and the narrow interpretation of 'economy' to
mean
subsistence. More generally one may argue that the apparently 'obvious'
and
quantifiable nature of food remains has tended to encourage a
polarisation
between functionalist interpretations and symbolic interpretations for
remains found in 'ritual' contexts such as graves, or pits with
structured
deposition, for example. The session organizers wish to discuss ways in
which we can integrate and interpret material from archaeobotany and
archaeozoology so as to be sensitive to aspects including the ecological
and functional and yet without assigning 'problematic' remains to the
realm
of ritual. Part of the session will explore the ways in which the term
subsistence has been used to identify an apparently separate sphere of
activity, as well as to classify whole societies, and to ask whether
alternative and perhaps looser terms such as 'lifeways' are more helpful
or
merely reproduce other equally rigid categories. The session will
encourage
debate and demonstration of possibilities other than the trajectory of
subsistence as the focus especially of prehistories. In order to
facilitate
other viewpoints we will be inviting anthropologists' comments on
notions
of subsistence in living populations and how this concept shapes our
acceptance, understanding and 'control' of indigenous peoples, but we
are
interested in an inclusive approach. Papers are invited from critically
aware archaeologists and others which offer new light on 'subsistence
activities' and their interpretation in the light of the comments
offered
above. Please contact either of the organizers, preferably by email, at
the
addresses above.
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