Neomaterialisms: sources of change for archaeology

Abstract

One of the most significant contemporary intellectual debates concerns the rise of new materialisms and realisms in philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. Across multiple disciplines, scholars have reasserted the role of material objects in the production of worlds and societies, while challenging hegemonic views that conceive matter as inert and passive, subordinate to the actions and intentions of an autonomous subject. Authors such as Latour, DeLanda, Meillassoux and Barad advance non- anthropocentric approaches that foreground material assemblages, the vitality of matter and contingency in the constitution of more-than-human societies. To date, the impact of the neo-materialist debate in archaeology has been limited in both scope and depth. Early engagements have been grouped under the label of ‘symmetrical archaeology’; however, the ontological and epistemological implications of these approaches extend beyond both this current and archaeology itself. The primary aim of this article is to outline the main terms of the debate and identify its key intellectual sources, in order to inform current and future archaeological discussion. What is at stake also concerns neighbouring disciplines, particularly art history, with which archaeology shares a range of challenges. Finally, the article considers the initial impact of neo-materialist and neo-realist approaches on archaeological research and cautions against the risk of reducing them to purely theoretical speculation lacking clear methodological application.