The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed
as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the
development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of
agricultural production, it is seen as the precursor and origin-point
for significant
aspects of the modern world. This book presents a very different image
of Bronze Age Britain and Ireland.
Drawing on the wealth of material from recent excavations, as well as a
long history of research, it explores the impact of the
post-Enlightenment 'othering' of the non-human on our understanding of
Bronze Age society. There is much to suggest that the conceptual
boundary between the active human
subject and the passive world of objects, so familiar from our own
cultural context, was not drawn in this categorical way in the Bronze
Age; the self was constructed in relational rather than individualistic
terms, and aspects of the non-human world such as pots, houses, and
mountains were
considered animate entities with their own spirit or soul. In a series
of thematic chapters on the human body, artefacts, settlements, and
landscapes, this book considers the character of Bronze Age personhood,
the relationship between individual and society, and ideas around agency
and social
power. The treatment and deposition of things such as querns, axes, and
human remains provides insights into the meanings and values ascribed to
objects and places, and the ways in which such items acted as social
agents in the Bronze Age world.
