Power and all its guises: Environmental Determinism and locating ‘the crux of the matter’

Govier, Eloise (2020) Power and all its guises: Environmental Determinism and locating ‘the crux of the matter’. Archaeological Dialogues, 27 (2). ISSN 1380-2038 (Print), 1478-2294 (Online)

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Abstract

Can we theorise the relationship between discourses that antagonise each other? In a recent article, Arponen et al. (2019) demonstrate the tension between two different research models, and spotlight the compelling impact these methods have on archaeological interpretation. In response to their ob- servations, this paper theorises how we can understand the position of the researcher in relation to the events they analyse. Using Michel Foucault’s (1972) approach to the ‘discursive formation’ and Karen Barad’s (2007) agential realism theory, in this reaction I argue that focusing on a single and most important point (the crux) is problematic, and theoretically outline how creating conceptual space for polymorphous causality can aid the analysis of a ‘dispersion of events’ (see Foucault 1972, 22).

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: causality, environmental determinism, agential realism, discourse, discursive formation, rupture
Subjects: C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology
Divisions: Institutes and Academies > Institute of Education and Humanities > Academic Discipline: Humanities and Social Sciences
Depositing User: Eloise Govier
Date Deposited: 11 Aug 2020 09:53
Last Modified: 11 Sep 2024 17:02
URI: https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1404

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