Research Catalog

Breaking the surface : an art/archaeology of prehistoric architecture

Title
Breaking the surface : an art/archaeology of prehistoric architecture / Doug Bailey.
Author
Bailey, Douglass W. (Douglass Whitfield), 1963-
Publication
  • New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]
  • ©2018

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TextUse in library JFE 19-4096Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xv, 338 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"Breaking the Surface will be a disruption to traditional archaeological approaches to the prehistoric past. Having performed fieldwork on the early Neolithic pit-houses of southeastern Europe for over 20 years, the author aims to confront a major development in human history--digging, or the creation of holes. The book begins with a detailed examination of the extant remains of Neolithic pit-houses, the roofed dugout structures that are the earliest evidence for settled habitation in Europe. Rather than seek confirmation for what has already been theorized about their use (e.g., housing, storage, refuse), the author turns to the more specific actions of the people who dug these holes in the surface, and, more critically, to the consequences that those prehistoric actions had on those people's understanding of their place(s) in their ground worlds: how digging into the surface altered their perspectives of themselves and others, and of their world and of other worlds beyond the material and visible. The book turns to how scholars in other disciplines, such as philosophy and linguistic anthropology, have been asking similar questions about holes and the consequences of breaking and cutting. The resulting book offers comprehensive discussions of the philosophy of holes and perforations (particularly the paradox of a hole - does it exist, is it beyond materiality?), the linguistic anthropology of cut- and break-words (what diversity exists in the ways that extant communities talk and think about perforations and perforating), and the perceptual psychology of concavities (the case that holes attract our visual attentions)"--
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Preface -- Chapter 1. Cutting pit-houses: function, deposition, questions not asked -- Chapter 2. Cutting skin: Ron Athey's 4 Scenes (A.D. 1994) -- Chapter 3. Cutting holes: philosophy and psychology -- Inter-text -- Chapter 4. Cutting deep: Bronze Age (1490-1290 cal. B.C.) -- Chapter 5. Cutting buildings: Gordon Matta-Clark's Conical Intersect (A.D. 1975) -- Chapter 6. Cutting words: linguistic anthropology -- Inter-text -- Chapter 7. Cutting the ground: Neolithic Etton (3800 cal. B.C.) -- Chapter 8. Cutting space: Lucio Fontana's tagli and buchi (A.D. 1950s and 1960s) -- Chapter 9. Cutting absolute worlds: grounded frames of reference -- Inter-text -- Appendix: recutting Wilsford (A.D. 1960-1962).
Call Number
JFE 19-4096
ISBN
  • 9780190611873
  • 0190611871
  • 9780190611880
  • 019061188X
LCCN
2017053680
OCLC
1042080961
Author
Bailey, Douglass W. (Douglass Whitfield), 1963- author.
Title
Breaking the surface : an art/archaeology of prehistoric architecture / Doug Bailey.
Publisher
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]
Copyright Date
©2018
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Other Form:
Online version: Bailey, Douglass W. (Douglass Whitfield), 1963- author. Breaking the surface New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018 9780190611897 (DLC) 2018046060
Research Call Number
JFE 19-4096
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