Entangled

A powerful and innovative argument that explores the complexity of the human relationship with material things, demonstrating how humans and societies are entrapped into the maintenance and sustaining of material worlds Argues that the interrelationship of humans and things is a defining characteristic of human history and culture Offers a nuanced argument that values the physical processes of things without succumbing to materialism Discusses historical and modern examples, using evolutionary theory to show how long-standing entanglements are irreversible and increase in scale and complexity over time Integrates aspects of a diverse array of contemporary theories in archaeology and related natural and biological sciences Provides a critical review of many of the key contemporary perspectives from materiality, material culture studies and phenomenology to evolutionary theory, behavioral archaeology, cognitive archaeology, human behavioral ecology, Actor Network Theory and complexity theory

A powerful and innovative argument that explores the complexity ofthe human relationship with material things, demonstrating howhumans and societies are entrapped into the maintenance andsustaining of material worlds* Argues that the interrelationship of humans and things is adefining characteristic of human history and culture* Offers a nuanced argument that values the physical processes ofthings without succumbing to materialism* Discusses historical and modern examples, using evolutionarytheory to show how long-standing entanglements are irreversible andincrease in scale and complexity over time* Integrates aspects of a diverse array of contemporary theoriesin archaeology and related natural and biological sciences* Provides a critical review of many of the key contemporaryperspectives from materiality, material culture studies andphenomenology to evolutionary theory, behavioral archaeologycognitive archaeology, human behavioral ecology, Actor NetworkTheory and complexity theory

Epigraph ixList of Figures xAcknowledgments xii1 Thinking About Things Differently 1Approaches to Things 1Themes About Things 3Things are Not Isolated 3Things are Not Inert 4Things Endure over Different Temporalities 5Things Often Appear as Non-things 5The Forgetness of Things 6What Is a Thing? 7Humans and Things 9Knowing Things 10Conclusion: The Objectness of Things 132 Humans Depend on Things 15Dependence: Some Introductory Concepts 17Forms of Dependence 17Reflective and Non-reflective Relationships with Things 18Going Towards and Away From Things 21Identification and Ownership 23Approaches to the Human Dependence On Things 27Being There with Things 27Material Culture and Materiality 30Cognition and the Extended Mind 34Conclusion: Things R Us 383 Things Depend on Other Things 40Forms of Connection between Things 42Production and Reproduction 42Exchange 43Use 43Consumption 43Discard 43Post-deposition 44Affordances 48From Affordance to Dependence 51The French School - Operational Chains 52Behavioral Chains 54Conclusion 584 Things Depend on Humans 64Things Fall Apart 68Behavioral Archaeology and Material Behavior 70Behavioral Ecology 74Human Behavioral Ecology 80The Temporalities of Things 84Conclusion: The Unruliness of Things 855 Entanglement 88Other Approaches 89Latour and Actor Network Theory 91The Archaeology of Entanglement 94The Physical Processes of Things 95Temporalities 98Forgetness 101The Tautness of Entanglements 103Types and Degrees of Entanglement 105Cores and Peripheries of Entanglements 108Contingency 109Conclusion 1116 Fittingness 113Nested Fittingness 114Return to Affordance 115Coherence: Abstraction, Metaphor, Mimesis and Resonance 119Abstraction, Metaphor and Mimesis 120Synaesthesia 124Resonance 125Coherence and Resonance at Çatalhöyük 132Conclusion 1357 The Evolution and Persistence of Things 138Evolutionary Approaches 139Evolutionary Ecology (HBE) 141Evolutionary Archaeology 142Dual Inheritance Theory 144Evolution and Entanglement 147Niche Construction 149Evolution at Çatalhöyük 151Conclusion 1568 Things happen ... 158The Complexity of Entanglements 159Open, Complex and Discontinuous Entanglements 159Unruly Things: Contingency 159Conjunction of Temporalities 160Catalysis: Small Things and the Emergence of Big Effects 163Is there a Directionality to Entanglements? 167Some Neolithic Examples 171Macro-evolutionary Approaches 173Why Do Entanglements Increase the Rate of Change? 174Conclusion 1779 Tracing the Threads 179Tanglegrams 180Locating Entanglements 185Sequencing Entanglements - at Çatalhöyük 189Sequencing Entanglements - the Origins of Agriculture in the Middle East 195Causality and Directionality 200Conclusion 20410 Conclusions 206The Object Nature of Things 207Too Much Stuff? 210Temporality and Structure 212Power and Agency 213To and from Formulaic Reduction 216Things Again 218Some Ethical Considerations 220The Last Thing on my Mind 221Bibliography 223Index 245