Research Catalog

Title

Personifying prehistory : relational ontologies in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland / Joanna Brück.

Author

Brück, Joanna

Publication

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xi, 308 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of agricultural production, it is seen as the precursor and origin-point for significant aspects of the modern world. This book presents a very different image of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland. 0Drawing on the wealth of material from recent excavations, as well as a long history of research, it explores the impact of the post-Enlightenment 'othering' of the non-human on our understanding of Bronze Age society. There is much to suggest that the conceptual boundary between the active human subject and the passive world of objects, so familiar from our own cultural context, was not drawn in this categorical way in the Bronze Age; the self was constructed in relational rather than individualistic terms, and aspects of the non-human world such as pots, houses, and mountains were considered animate entities with their own spirit or soul. In a series of thematic chapters on the human body, artefacts, settlements, and landscapes, this book considers the character of Bronze Age personhood, the relationship between individual and society, and ideas around agency and social power. The treatment and deposition of things such as querns, axes, and human remains provides insights into the meanings and values ascribed to objects and places, and the ways in which such items acted as social agents in the Bronze Age world.

Subjects

• Great Britain
• Bronze age
• History
• Bronze age > Great Britain
• Great Britain > History > To 55 B.C
• To 55 B.C

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-289) and index.

Contents

Introduction: identity and alterity in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland -- Fragmenting the body -- Object biographies -- The living house -- Social landscapes -- Conclusion: the flow of life in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland.

Call Number

JFD 19-2732

ISBN

• 9780198768012
• 019876801X

LCCN

2018948524

OCLC

1039935131

Author

Brück, Joanna, author.

Title

Personifying prehistory : relational ontologies in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland / Joanna Brück.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-289) and index.

Chronological Term

To 55 B.C.

Research Call Number

JFD 19-2732