One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination
Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2019
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination," at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.
Archaeologists, especially in the North American tradition, have customarily held an ambivalent relationship towards singular artifacts. Fighting against the charge of treasure hunting, archaeologists have favored speaking in terms of assemblages, contexts, and mass data, rather than single objects. At the same time, singular artifacts are ultimately the medium through which archaeology engages with the public, and which may be displayed in museums. Furthermore, it is often the single artifact that pulls on our own heartstrings in excavation, and provides the emotional reward for our own hard work. This session considers different approaches to singular artifacts, taking seriously the dangers of fetishization while at the same time not discounting the affective power and informative potential of singular objects. How can we critically attend to the affective power of singular objects over assemblages and data sheets, and interrogate the role they play in archaeology's development and its relationship with various publics?
Other Keywords
Jewelry •
Industrial Archaeology •
Race •
Clothing •
Fish •
ancient DNA •
embodiment •
class •
Political ecology •
Chinese diaspora
Temporal Keywords
20th Century •
Nineteenth Century •
19th Century •
1790-1865
Geographic Keywords
Coahuila (State / Territory) •
New Mexico (State / Territory) •
Oklahoma (State / Territory) •
Arizona (State / Territory) •
Texas (State / Territory) •
Sonora (State / Territory) •
United States of America (Country) •
Chihuahua (State / Territory) •
Nuevo Leon (State / Territory) •
Delaware (State / Territory)
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-4 of 4)
- Documents (4)
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Making Waste Singular: The Ecological Life of Industrial Waste in Mill Creek Ravine (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Industrialization is defined by the mass production of commodities, explicitly produced to be non-singular objects. However, as scholars such as Igor Kopytoff have argued, commodities are singularized through their unique histories of social relations. Alongside the production of commodities,...
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A Piece of Salted Snakehead and Its Implications for the Nineteenth-Century Chinese Diaspora Fish Trade (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeologists have traditionally relied upon large datasets to investigate historical fishing industries, the distribution of fish products, and the effect of fishing on the environment. Such studies make critical contributions to understandings of past fisheries; however, not all fish stories require...
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Visions in Brass: Personal Adornment and the Politics of Race in Creole New Orleans, 1790-1865. (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Buttons, buckles, and jewelry have long fascinated historical archaeologists for their capacity to address questions pertaining to social identity and the presentation of self in everyday life. But such artifacts are valued for more than their mere historical associations, often inciting scholarship...
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What’s in a Button?: Sartorial Artifacts, Colonial Journeys, and the Archaeological Imagination (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only
This is an abstract from the "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeological objects related to clothing wield an affective power derived from their inherent closeness to the historical body, to the life of a particular individual. Despite being quotidian and even mass-produced, such artifacts become singular by virtue of their role in practices of embodiment....