Session: #143

Session with keynote presentation and discussion

The question of what role do resources play in societies from early history to the present day in order to emerge, maintain and change is the focus of this session. Resources are understood as what moves societies and are thus the bases of social life. Beyond a naturalistic or economic perspective, resources represent much more. They are not only naturally given raw materials or economic means, but also specific foundations of the becoming and passing of societies. According to this view, all resources are culturally constructed and the results of historical developments. They can be both material and non-material, either in the form of soils, energy sources, materials, building materials or food, but also in the form of knowledge, speech or memories and related practices. The use of these resources gives rise to social relations and identities, which in turn have an impact on societies and on the things themselves. Resources are at the center of actions and processes, and specific ways of dealing with them can be identified.
This session focuses on the description and analysis of the multi-layered socio-cultural dynamics in dealing with resources. We invite contributions to the discussion of the role of resource use in historical processes, mirrored in the archaeological record and in artefacts with a special emphasis on a cultural perspective on resources. The resources in question can be of various kinds, the key element is that people attribute a cultural value to them for their form of living together. The aim is to make a contribution in archaeology and its neighboring disciplines to move away from an essentialist understanding of resources and to emphasize the importance of their manifold manifestations for social and political processes.

resources, cultural perspective, social and political processes

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Martin Bartelheim (Germany) ¹

Philippe Della Casa (Switzerland) ²
Thomas Scholten (Germany) ¹