Out of Body, Out of Mind: The extended body and manifestations of identity in the Palaeolithic (original) (raw)

2017

Abstract

Presented at CASA 2017, University of Cambridge within the session "Bodies and Being". The biographies of objects and materials are inherently the biographies of people; the two are entangled (Hodder 2011). They have the potential to reveal information about their minds, their personalities, and their identities. Yet objects and materials are frequently considered with regard to their functionality, rather than the individual that produced them. This has resulted in a dichotomy between material and being within archaeology, with the two rarely considered as indistinguishable. This unnecessary theoretical division has resulted in interpretations of the material record becoming limited, with archaeologists experiencing a difficulty in accessing the individual. This issue is most prominent in the Palaeolithic, where the effects of preservation further limit the available evidence of individual’s behaviour. However, through seeking to access identities, individualism, and personhood through artefacts, one can unlock information about individuals, even when the wealth of evidence is lacking. This research will aim to do this through the perspective of the ‘extended body’, derived from the ‘extended mind’ theory (Clark and Chalmers 1998); materials in the archaeological record are manifestations of an individual’s identity. Evidence of manifestations of identity will focus on artistic and symbolic behaviours in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, and I will contrast the extent Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) perform this behaviour. Further, I will explore the intentionality behind the creation of material manifestations of identity, through discussing potential psychological factors behind expressing oneself through materials. This approach will provide a unique insight into the way our ancestors embodied themselves in objects and materials, and thus how they perceived their own bodies in relation to their own world.

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