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Comment on ‘The symmetries and asymmetries of human–thing relations. A dialogue’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2017

John C. Barrett
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Extract

Gavin Lucas questions whether Ian Hodder's analysis of the ‘entanglements’ between humans and many other things necessarily assumes an inherent asymmetry. The quick answer is that it is more than likely, and we might wonder why Lucas thinks that this is a problem. The recent ‘ontological turn’ in archaeology has sought to treat the differences between all things ‘symmetrically’ and ‘without a priori subsuming them into an asymmetrical regime of radical divides’ (Olsen and Witmore 2015, 188). One such radical divide would be between living things (such as humans) and non-living things (such as hammers): it is the potential asymmetry across this divide that Lucas seems to want to avoid.

Type
Discussion
Information
Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , December 2017 , pp. 137 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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