Rock art and ontology
Rock art and ontology
Rock art studies are a global endeavour, with researchers working in key regions including Australia, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe (particularly western Europe). Rock art scholars, like most archaeologists, participated in the epistemological debates relating to objectivity and subjectivity that took place in the 1980s and 1990s with the shift from the scientific perspective known as processualism to the interpretative perspective described as post-processualism (e.g. Taçon and Chippindale 1998). More recently, archaeologists have begun to explore ontological questions, and rock art scholars have been slower to engage with these debates (with some honourable exceptions e.g Dowson 2009; Creese 2011; Robinson 2013; Porr and Bell 2012). This paper reviews recent ontological debates in archaeology, and examines how ontology has been discussed in rock art studies. Ultimately, the review argues that a critical awareness of ontological issues forces rock art scholars to fundamentally reconsider their sub-discipline.
167-181
Jones, Andrew
3e8becff-0d46-42eb-85db-2dd4f07e92a3
October 2017
Jones, Andrew
3e8becff-0d46-42eb-85db-2dd4f07e92a3
Abstract
Rock art studies are a global endeavour, with researchers working in key regions including Australia, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe (particularly western Europe). Rock art scholars, like most archaeologists, participated in the epistemological debates relating to objectivity and subjectivity that took place in the 1980s and 1990s with the shift from the scientific perspective known as processualism to the interpretative perspective described as post-processualism (e.g. Taçon and Chippindale 1998). More recently, archaeologists have begun to explore ontological questions, and rock art scholars have been slower to engage with these debates (with some honourable exceptions e.g Dowson 2009; Creese 2011; Robinson 2013; Porr and Bell 2012). This paper reviews recent ontological debates in archaeology, and examines how ontology has been discussed in rock art studies. Ultimately, the review argues that a critical awareness of ontological issues forces rock art scholars to fundamentally reconsider their sub-discipline.
Text
Rock art and Ontology revised
- Accepted Manuscript
Restricted to Repository staff only
Request a copy
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 17 July 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 July 2017
Published date: October 2017
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 412574
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/412574
ISSN: 0084-6570
PURE UUID: 63175927-57ee-4494-a58e-9c2b13b4d49a
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 21 Jul 2017 16:31
Last modified: 05 Jun 2024 20:02
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics