![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Recent years witnessed an assurgent criticism of anthropocentrism in the social sciences, arguing for more balanced approaches to the study of humans and non-humans as equally responsible for the constitution of society. These claims lean heavily on philosophical grounds, noting that the focus on the human subject is guided by modernist binary oppositions and produces an inappropriate image of society. However, the problems anthropocentricity poses for archaeology are unique, and these received little attention. It is argued that efforts to discover the human subject forces archaeologists to continuously compensate for its absence. A shift of focus from the nexus of humans and things to the nexus of things and other things is proposed, arguing that the relationships among the various components and features of the archaeological record embody social relations in themselves.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper was long in the writing and benefitted from discussions and commentaries offered by colleagues and friends: R. Greenberg, R. Shimelmitz, A. Gopher, S. A. Rosen, M. Iserlis, B. Knapp and P. van Dommelen. I am indebted to two reviewers of this paper, Tim Flohr Sørensen and Matt Edgeworth, whose thoughtful remarks, I believe, helped to improve and clarify the paper. Ultimately, however, the ideas presented here are my own and are mine to defend.