Beyond asymmetry: a view from historical archaeology

This paper considers the potential significance of the notion of a 'symmetrical archaeology' from the point of view of the archaeology of the most recent past. Inspired by Latour's (1993) anthropological critique of a spurious, asymmetric 'Great Divide' - between human and nonhuman/material worlds, or between modern and premodern situations - the paper explores how archaeological studies of the most recent past have in a similar fashion begun to question the distance between past and present, archaeologist and object (cf. Hicks 2005).

Rather than leading to a new interpretive formalism, based around the geometrical metaphor of symmetry and its connotations of coherence or dynamic equilibrium, through a series of case studies in historical archaeology the paper suggests that such archaeological work leads away from 'asymmetric' approaches towards accounts that foreground complexity, material agency, noncoherence and partiality (rather than interpretation or meaning, for instance). Historical and contemporary archaeology holds the potential to move beyond 'asymmetric' thinking towards more nuanced, situated and complex archaeologies.

References

Hicks, D. 2005. 'Places for Thinking' from Annapolis to Bristol: Situations and Symmetries in 'World Historical Archaeology'. World Archaeology 37(3): 373-391.

Latour, B. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

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