Archaeology and the New Materialism

The papers in this session take up different engagements with "new materialism", demonstrating both the potential of archaeology to contribute to this transdisciplinary discussion, and some of the challenges inherent in a project that is far from unified and still emergent.One touchstone of new materialism has been the redefinition of matter as something beyond any specific physical stuff, as active, in Jane Bennett's felicitous term, Vibrant Matter, engaged in what Karen Barad characterizes as "intra-active becoming", "a congealing of agency". While on the surface these statements seem close to archaeological glosses on materiality and the agency of non-humans, one of the goals of this session will be to explore how new materialism goes beyond these well-integrated themes in archaeological research, and what changes new materialism might demand.Interrogation of boundaries between humans, other animals, and other things in the world in new materialism culminates in the pursuit of new ontologies, especially non-dualistic ontologies. This again has many connections with existing archaeological approaches to "relational" ontologies. Contributors to this session are challenged to specify how the ontological relations they pursue align with new materialism and its existing archaeological precedents.