In 2023 The Council for British Archaeology and CIfA's Early Careers Special Interest Group ran an online conference for early career archaeologists and heritage specialists to share their interests and research.
Speaker: Anna Fisher
Blurb: This paper seeks to challenge prior assumptions of the body and person in archaeology using a theoretical approach and put forward the argument that current views of these concepts represent too much of a microcosm to be an adequate analytical framework. Even within the restrictive nature of the dichotomy of a biological species or social construct, nature or culture, current approaches focus on specific areas of the body or person, such as gender or identity, rather than providing a holistic analytical framework. In study of the body and person, much like in assessment of Iron Age hillforts, the only applicable measure of standardisation is the acknowledgement of a significant degree of variation (Ralston, 2007, p.12). The diversification of perspectives on the body and person point to a broad-spectrum starting point that cannot yet be clearly defined, meaning that the only feasible way forwards is to assume that there were varied and complex concepts of the body and person in the past too.
This paper concludes that the revolutionary work of Harris and Robb in creating a relational approach to gender in the Neolithic founded on contextual production of difference (Harris and Robb, 2018, p. 141), lays a solid foundation from which to assess not just concepts of gender in each archaeological period, but also a framework from which the body and person can be crystallised. Extension of this theory could allow analysis of hitherto unexplored binaries and dualisms within the broader discipline, such as approaches to wealth inequality and perceptions of status and has huge potential. Further exploration of this theory is not just warranted but pivotal for the future assessment of these concepts in relation to archaeology.
