The View from the Cheap Seats. An Archaeologist Grappling with Multispecies Entanglements

Moving beyond entanglement as a generic cue for human-animal relationships requires intellectual enquiry and an engagement with various approaches and different strands of evidence. Christina Fredengren has produced a stimulating text that enfolds these factors. It is rich in theoretical discussions and brings out important nuances in approaches to relationships between humans and more-than-humans, and she explores ways of pushing the boundaries for how close we can get to past multispecies lifeways – and deathways. Throughout the text she raises a number of interesting questions that can help us push our horizons further. I will address some of these.publishedVersio

Animal Umwelten in a Changing world: Zoosemiotic Perspectives

The book raises semiotic questions of human–animal relations: what is the semiotic character of different species, how humans endow animals with meaning, and how animal sign exchange and communication has coped with environmental change. The book takes a zoosemiotic approach and considers different species as being integrated with the environment via their specific umwelt or subjective perceptual world. The authors elaborate J. v. Uexküll’s concept of umwelt to make it applicable for analyzing complex and dynamical interactions between animals, humans, environment and culture. The opening chapters of the book present a framework for philosophical, historical, epistemological and methodological aspects of zoosemiotic research. These initial considerations are followed by specific case studies: on human–animal interactions in zoological gardens, communication in the teams of visually disabled persons and guiding dogs, semiotics of the animal condition in philosophy, historical changes in the role of animals in human households, the semiotics of predation, cultural perception of novel species, and other topics. The authors belong to the research group in zoosemiotics and human–animal relations based in the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu in Estonia, and in the University of Stavanger in Norway

Animal Umwelten in a Changing world: Zoosemiotic Perspectives

The book raises semiotic questions of human–animal relations: what is the semiotic character of different species, how humans endow animals with meaning, and how animal sign exchange and communication has coped with environmental change. The book takes a zoosemiotic approach and considers different species as being integrated with the environment via their specific umwelt or subjective perceptual world. The authors elaborate J. v. Uexküll’s concept of umwelt to make it applicable for analyzing complex and dynamical interactions between animals, humans, environment and culture. The opening chapters of the book present a framework for philosophical, historical, epistemological and methodological aspects of zoosemiotic research. These initial considerations are followed by specific case studies: on human–animal interactions in zoological gardens, communication in the teams of visually disabled persons and guiding dogs, semiotics of the animal condition in philosophy, historical changes in the role of animals in human households, the semiotics of predation, cultural perception of novel species, and other topics. The authors belong to the research group in zoosemiotics and human–animal relations based in the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu in Estonia, and in the University of Stavanger in Norway

Multispecies worlds and socio-centric societies – living together with animals, plants, and insects

This session proposes multispecies approaches and understandings advanced within the ontological turn, as analytical frameworks for exploring how hunter-gatherers past and present were living (well?) with other species. Prehistoric archaeology, entailing the study of human and animal remains from the beginnings of humanity, on a global scale, can contribute in a unique way to explore what it means to be human in a world populated by non-human others. Throughout the Holocene humans have lived with animals in multispecies environments. How humans have lived with animals varies within, and between, societies. Animals have been bred, domesticated, buried, hunted, and fished, nurtured as pets and companions in addition to being exploited as food and materials. We also reflect on the role of insects as cultural agents, by focusing on how insects have impacted hunterfisher lifeways in the past and present, and what sort of challenges or solutions can insects represent to hunter-gatherers. A multispecies approach, inspired by ethology and biosemiotics, entanglement theory, and native ontologies, recognize that prehistoric communities were entwined with nonhumans in social as well as ecological and economic ways. We further embrace the concept of «egomorphism» (Milton 2005), a perspective acknowledging that humans perceive animals as similar to themselves and able to partake in social relations, as a viable road to overcome the polarization between Western and indigenous ontologies, while still taking native perspectives seriously. Archaeology is largely invisible in current debates about the Anthropocene and human influence on the environment. Although archaeological periods lie far beyond the onset of this geological epoch as currently defined, engaging with the debates encourages us to reflect on relations to nature and animals past and present, and our role and place in the world. Archaeological finds can challenge present norms and understandings and provide depth and diversity to the Anthropocene-debate which would not be accessible from anthropological, geographical or historical data. We welcome papers exploring multispecies relations from a variety of perspectives – relational, zoo/biosemiotic, ethological, historical, anthropological, environmental and phenomenological, regardless of chronological, geographical or cultural context. Contributions may focus on methods, models, case studies or theoretical frameworks

The Agrarian Life of the North 2000 BC AD 1000

The 14 articles presented in this publication represent some of the latest and most relevant research on rural settlement and farming from the Late Neolithic through the Early Medieval Period in Norway. It deals with the impact of climate change, plague and the AD 536â 7 volcanic event and some of the earliest farms north of the Arctic Circle. It provides new perspectives and archaeological evidence for the Viking age farm of Norway, differences in regional settlement structures of agrarian societies, the relation between houses and graves in the Iron Age, and varying food practices as indicators of societal change

The Agrarian Life of the North 2000 BC AD 1000

The 14 articles presented in this publication represent some of the latest and most relevant research on rural settlement and farming from the Late Neolithic through the Early Medieval Period in Norway. It deals with the impact of climate change, plague and the AD 536â 7 volcanic event and some of the earliest farms north of the Arctic Circle. It provides new perspectives and archaeological evidence for the Viking age farm of Norway, differences in regional settlement structures of agrarian societies, the relation between houses and graves in the Iron Age, and varying food practices as indicators of societal change

On the Fringe. Sheepdogs and Their Status Within Bronze Age Ontologies in Scandinavia

This contribution draws mainly on images of dogs, humans and sheep from Nordic Bronze Age rock art sources, but living arrangements within the household and depositional patterns of dog bones on settlements are also considered to extrapolate an understanding of the physical reality and ontological role of sheepdogs within the social aspects of the practice of herding. I use theories from the interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies to understand how socialisation, habituation and trust create a seamless choreography between human, dog and sheep.publishedVersio

Hafrsfjord 872: Forankring av relasjonsfelt

Innleiing: overordna målsetjing Hafrsfjordprosjektet er eit satsingsområde for Arkeologisk museum, og det er ynskjeleg å knytta eit overordna perspektiv både til forskingsprosjekt, formidling og dei framtidige forvaltningsoppgåvene som vil koma dei næraste åra. Prosjektet knyter seg til AM sin strategiplan for forsking, der overordna tema er «landskap og identitet i endring». AM ynskjer å undersøka det samfunnsmessige grunnlaget for hypotesa om politisk maktkamp som ligg i botn av orsakene til det antatte slaget ved Hafrsfjord. Prosjektet skal forankrast i eit rammeverk. Dette syter for ei teoretisk overbygning som fungerer som ein paraply for mindre, konkrete forskingsprosjekt. AM vil nytta eksisterande materiale som er resultat frå forvaltningsundersøkingar og arkeologisk materiale frå magasinet som grunnlagsmateriale for forskingsprosjekta. I tillegg kan det vera ynskjeleg å setja i gang forskingsgravingar på nye lokalitetar. Forskingsprosjektet ynskjer å forankra fleire relasjonsfelt, både på kryss av tid og stad. Relasjonane er konseptualisert som både band og brot mellom institusjonar og mennesker, både på individ- og gruppenivå, samt overgangen frå hav til land. Hendingane i Hafrsfjord, slik me kjenner de ifrå sogene, maler eit bilete av både samhald og opposisjon, på land og til havs. Føremålet med denne innfallsvinkelen er å skapa eit breitt forskingsfelt som opner opp for synergieffekt og nyskapande forsking, og som femner breitt både i tid og rom. Felt (field) er her tenkt på fleire nivå: som fysisk felt/rom, som forskingsfelt og dessutan i Bourdieusk forstand som sosialt felt der habitus, praksis og logikk speler seg ut (jf. Bourdieu 1977, Bourdieu 1990)

On the Fringe. Sheepdogs and Their Status Within Bronze Age Ontologies in Scandinavia

This contribution draws mainly on images of dogs, humans and sheep from Nordic Bronze Age rock art sources, but living arrangements within the household and depositional patterns of dog bones on settlements are also considered to extrapolate an understanding of the physical reality and ontological role of sheepdogs within the social aspects of the practice of herding. I use theories from the interdisciplinary field of human-animal studies to understand how socialisation, habituation and trust create a seamless choreography between human, dog and sheep

The View from the Cheap Seats. An Archaeologist Grappling with Multispecies Entanglements

Moving beyond entanglement as a generic cue for human-animal relationships requires intellectual enquiry and an engagement with various approaches and different strands of evidence. Christina Fredengren has produced a stimulating text that enfolds these factors. It is rich in theoretical discussions and brings out important nuances in approaches to relationships between humans and more-than-humans, and she explores ways of pushing the boundaries for how close we can get to past multispecies lifeways – and deathways. Throughout the text she raises a number of interesting questions that can help us push our horizons further. I will address some of these