5:00pm | Archaeological theory since 1984 and the politics of human displacement | Ian Hodder
This talk looks critically at the evolutionary paths of archaeological theory in the UK since 1984. There is much to applaud and celebrate but I have become concerned about the perhaps unwitting implications of some of the developments. Two long-term trends are identified – one is the transformation of materialism into materiality, and the other is the gradual decentering of the human. The focus on post-humanism occurs throughout many disciplines in many forms and it is a trend that mirrors societal concerns and debates about AI, the internet of things, cyborgs and singularities, the Matrix rather than meshworks. An argument is made that this displacement of humans parallels the displacement of humans from the work place, from community and from identity. The two trends together weaken attempts by humans to assert their rights in relation to specific material conditions of existence. ‘Archaeology in 1984’ (Antiquity 58(222), pp.25-32) was written in response to Orwell’s fantasy. 40 years later, what will be the role of archaeological theory as an Orwellian future beckons?
