Posthuman Archaeologies, Archaeological Posthumanisms

Abstract

This paper maps and builds relations between posthumanism and the field of archaeology, arguing for vital and promising connections between the two. Posthuman insights on post-anthropocentrism, non-human multiplicities, and the minoritarian in the now intersect powerfully with archaeology’s multi-temporal and long-term interests in heterogenous and vibrant assemblages of people, places, and things, particularly the last few decades of ‘decolonial’ re-imaginings of the field. For these reasons, we frame archaeology as the historical science of posthumanism. We demonstrate the discipline’s breadth through three vignettes concerning archaeology’s unique engagements with multiplicities of objects, multiplicities of scales, and multiplicities of people. These examples, we argue, speak to the benefits of becoming posthuman archaeologists and archaeological posthumanists.