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Anthropology
Archaeology

Substances: 'Following the material' through two prehistoric cases

Profile image of Lynn MeskellLynn Meskell
https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183514546803
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Abstract

2014. With Mary Weismantel. In Journal of Material Culture, 19/3:233-251. In this article, we argue for a multi-dimensional research strategy incorporating material, social and phenomenological analysis in the study of figurines and other human effigies. We call this approach ‘following the material’. To illustrate, we examine two case studies: figurines from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) and human effigies from the Formative region of Moche (Peru). We look first at the material substances from which artifacts are made and the material contexts in which they were produced, circulated and deposited, before turning to analysis of the representation of the body. This enables us to see these objects as themselves bodies – not merely imperfect replicas of actual humans, but material objects made of substances that afford particular kinds of interactions between fleshly and artifactual bodies. This focus on the materiality of artifacts reveals tight connections between objects in human form, material culture, environment, landscape, and political economy.

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  54. Lynn Meskell is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Archaeology Center at Stanford University. Before coming to Stanford in 2005 she was Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University. She is Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Some of her recent books and edited collections include Cosmopolitan Archaeologies (2009, Duke UP) and The Nature of Culture: The New South Africa (2012, Blackwells). Her new research focuses on the role of UNESCO in terms of heritage rights, sovereignty and international politics.
  55. Professor Lynn Meskell, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford CA 94305. Email: lmeskell@stanford.edu

Related papers

Substances: 'Following the material' through two prehistoric cases. co-author: Lynn Meskell
Mary Weismantel, Lynn Meskell

In this article, we argue for a multi-dimensional research strategy incorporating material, social and phenomenological analysis in the study of figurines and other human effigies. We call this approach 'following the material'. To illustrate, we examine two case studies: figurines from the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) and human effigies from the Formative region of Moche (Peru). We look first at the material substances from which artifacts are made and the material contexts in which they were produced, circulated and deposited, before turning to analysis of the representation of the body. This enables us to see these objects as themselves bodiesnot merely imperfect replicas of actual humans, but material objects made of substances that afford particular kinds of interactions between fleshly and artifactual bodies. This focus on the materiality of artifacts reveals tight connections between objects in human form, material culture, environment, landscape, and political economy.

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Doug Bailey
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Doug Bailey

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