Ebook: Thinking through the Body: Archaeologies of Corporeality

This book is based on the Thinking through the Body workshop held at the University of Wales, Lampeter, in June 1998. We would like to thank the University of Wales, Lampeter, and in particular the Department of Archaeology for financial and other support; the student volunteers for their help in organizing the conference; and the participants for co-operating in preparing their papers for pre-circulation. An exhibition of works by contemporary artists dealing with the body was also held in conjunction with the academic conference and contributed greatly to the intellectual, aesthetic and social atmosphere. We would like to thank all the artists, Ron Dukelow and Cambria Arts for agreeing to participate in the workshop and for organizing and mounting the exhibition. CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables ix List of Contributors xi Introduction: Thinking Through the Body Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik and Sarah Tarlow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Part 1: Bodies, Selves and Individuals Introduction Sarah Tarlow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 1 Archaeology's humanism and the materiality of the body Julian Thomas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 2 Body Parts: personhood and materiality in the earlier Manx neolithic Chris Fowler. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3 Moralities of dress and the dress of the dead in early medieval Europe Jos Bazelmans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4 The aesthetic corpse in nineteenth-century Britain Sarah Tarlow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Part 2: Experience and Corporeality Introduction Yannis Hamilakis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 5 Feeling through the body:gesture in Cretan Bronze Age Religion Christine Morris and Alan Peatfield. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 6 The past as oral history: towards an archaeology of the senses Yannis Hamilakis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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What is the archaeology of the body and how can it change the way we experience the past? This book, one of the first to appear on the subject, records and evaluates the emergence of this new direction of cross-disciplinary research, and examines the potential of incorporating some of its insights into archaeology. The contributors have explored issues such as `embodiment' (the conceptualization of the past and the present as lived sensual experience), the links between body and personhood, and the cultural meaning of the human body as symbol, artefact, or metaphor. The discussion is based on theoretically informed, detailed case studies which take us from early prehistoric societies to post-medieval times, from Oceania to Scandinavia, and from the Near East to Crete, Italy, and Britain. Despite the complexity of the issues and concepts involved, the book is written in a clear and accessible manner, summarizing, explaining and discussing large bodies of literature from a range of disciplines. As such this book will be of interest to students, researchers, and teachers in archaeology, as well as in cognate disciplines such as anthropology and history.
This volume includes contributions from Elisabeth Ardwill-Nordblach, Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, Jos Bazelmans, Brian Boyd, Chris Fowler, Alan Petfield and Christine Morris, Paul Rainbird, John Robb and Julian Thomas.