Theme:
2. From Limes to regions: the archaeology of borders, connections and roads
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
CANCELLED Defining Boundaries in Prehistoric Research
Content:
Archaeology is shaken by a general call to overcome the structuring epistemological principles of the modern dualism-based scientific matrix from which incessant theoretical fragmentation has taken place in recent decades. In challenging the conceptual boundaries of archaeological discourse, it is urgent to question the ways in which we delimit archaeological categories that refer to ontological conceptions quite distant from modern Western thought, namely those of Prehistory, and how these societies would conceptualize their different borders. Reflecting on the boundaries of the Past necessarily requires discussion of the conceptual boundaries in modern research.
The purpose of this session is to integrate the debate that permeates contemporary archaeology, using as thread the “boundaries” i.e., the interface that both unite and separate. Where do we draw the line between the mind and the material world, between “people” and “things”? We welcome critical approaches in defining central categories in the analysis of the materialities of the Past, whose conceptual boundaries remain blurred: e.g., ritual / ceremonial / mundane; extraordinary / ordinary; style / function / technique, etc. Can we blend those concepts? How, why and under which circumstances, namely in order to emphazise the process of formation and consolidation of prehistoric identities, focusing both the short time scale - in daily life contexts - and the regional long-term duration? In what ways can we identify / deduce spatial, social and ideological boundaries of prehistoric communities through the archaeological record? Similarly, we wonder how they produce, maintain, alter, and break boundaries over time.
Given that historical circumstances and academic tradition give rise to narratives often accommodated to current political and / or administrative boundaries, tending to project them into the prehistoric Past, we also list this line of research for this session.
Keywords:
Boundaries, Prehistory, Materials, Identities, Change, Conceptual boundaries
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Helena Barbosa (Spain) 1,2,3
Co-organisers:
Maria de Jesus Sanches (Portugal) 3
Joana Castro Teixeira (Portugal) 3
Affiliations:
1. University of Valladolid
2. FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
3. CITCEM / University of Porto, Portugal
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