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Materiality, Technology, and Constructing Social Knowledge through Bodily Representation: A View from Prehistoric Guernsey, Channel Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Sheila Kohring
Sheila Kohring*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
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Abstract

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The role of the human body in the creation of social knowledge—as an ontological and/or aesthetic category—has been applied across social theory. In all these approaches, the body is viewed as a locus for experience and knowledge. If the body is a source of subjective knowledge, then it can also become an important means of creating ontological categories of self and society. The materiality of human representations within art traditions, then, can be interpreted as providing a means for contextualizing and aestheticizing the body in order to produce a symbolic and structural knowledge category. This paper explores the effect of material choices and techniques of production when representing the human body on how societies order and categorize the world.

Le rôle du corps dans la création du savoir social — comme catégorie ontologique et/ou esthétique — a été largement appliqué en théorie sociale. Toutes ces approches considèrent le corps comme un lieu de prédilection pour l'expérience et le savoir; il devient un instrument important pour créer des catégories ontologiques du soi et de la société. La matérialité des représentations humaines au sein des traditions artistiques peut alors être interprétée comme constituant un moyen de contextualisation et d'esthétisation du corps afin de produire une catégorie de savoir symbolique et structurel. Dans cet article nous examinons l'effet des choix de matériaux et des techniques de production lors de la représentation du corps humain sur la manière dont les sociétés classent et catégorisent le monde. Translation by Isabelle Gerges

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Die Rolle des menschlichen Körpers bei der Schaffung sozialen Wissens — als ontologische und/oder ästhetische Kategorie — fand in der Sozialtheorie stets Berücksichtigung. Bei all diesen Ansätzen wird der Körper als Ort der Erfahrungen und des Wissens angesehen; und er wird ein wichtiges Instrument der Erhebung ontologischer Kategorien des Selbst und der Gesellschaft. Die Materialität menschlicher Darstellungen in den Felskunst-Traditionen kann somit als Hilfsmittel für die Kontextualisierung und Ästhetisierung des Körpers angesehen werden, um eine symbolische und strukturelle Wissenskategorie zu schaffen. Dieser Beitrag untersucht den Effekt der Materialwahl und der Produktionstechniken bei der Abbildung des menschlichen Körpers in Hinblick darauf, wie Gesellschaften die Welt gliedern und kategorisieren. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg

Keywords

materialitybodyrepresentationstoneChannel Islandsmatérialitécorpsreprésentationpierreîles anglo-normandesMaterialitätKörperRepräsentationSteinKanalinseln
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Special Issue—Body Practices and Concepts in Later Prehistoric Europe , 2014 , pp. 248 - 263
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© Sheila Kohring 2014 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2014 

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