The materiality of age: osteoarchaeology, objects, and the contingency of human development
The materiality of age: osteoarchaeology, objects, and the contingency of human development
Osteological determinations are regularly used as the basis for archaeological interpretation through the association of objects with human skeletons of a given age. Thus, the skeletal body is employed as a means of underpinning interpretations rather than a source for generating them. This paper explores the relationship between the practice of human osteoarchaeology and material culture based interpretative archaeology through an investigation of ontological distinctions between child and adult. It outlines a theoretical framework that identifies the bioarchaeological study of the human skeleton as a way of relating bodies and objects in order to more fully incorporate physiological changes of the body throughout the life course into contextually specific understandings of social identity. Rather than identifying age in terms of a series of categories, by revisiting the relationship between bodies and objects it becomes about processes of human development. Age is a temporal and material concept.
165-180
Sofaer, Joanna
038f9eb2-5863-46ef-8eaf-fb2513b75ee2
2005
Sofaer, Joanna
038f9eb2-5863-46ef-8eaf-fb2513b75ee2
Sofaer, Joanna
(2005)
The materiality of age: osteoarchaeology, objects, and the contingency of human development.
Ethnographisch-Archäologischen Zeitschrift, 45 (2-3), .
Abstract
Osteological determinations are regularly used as the basis for archaeological interpretation through the association of objects with human skeletons of a given age. Thus, the skeletal body is employed as a means of underpinning interpretations rather than a source for generating them. This paper explores the relationship between the practice of human osteoarchaeology and material culture based interpretative archaeology through an investigation of ontological distinctions between child and adult. It outlines a theoretical framework that identifies the bioarchaeological study of the human skeleton as a way of relating bodies and objects in order to more fully incorporate physiological changes of the body throughout the life course into contextually specific understandings of social identity. Rather than identifying age in terms of a series of categories, by revisiting the relationship between bodies and objects it becomes about processes of human development. Age is a temporal and material concept.
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Published date: 2005
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Local EPrints ID: 43321
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/43321
PURE UUID: 80d3dcd8-9f5a-4ac5-9361-ca6dc88e1bcf
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Date deposited: 22 Jan 2007
Last modified: 16 Mar 2022 02:37
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