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Agency in Archaeological Theory

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Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Introduction

Agency is an explicitly humanistic perspective for understanding ancient people and social reproduction. It emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between people’s conscious and unintended actions and their social, ideological, and material conditions. Agency is an attempt to bridge three long-standing paradigmatic divides: between theories focused on egocentric individuals “in” society, those concerned with the deterministic nature of normative culture, and theories emphasizing the influence of external (material) conditions on both individuals and society.

After more than three decades of experimentation and critical reflection, there is still little consensus across paradigmatic boundaries as to precisely what agency is (Dobres & Robb 2000, for attempts at a comprehensive definition, see Johnson 1989; Bell 1992; Pauketat 2001; Dornan 2002). Nonetheless, as a conceptual framework and an analytic tool, the utility of agency for making sense of the past is undisputed. And...

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References

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Further Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA

    Marcia-Anne Dobres

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  1. Marcia-Anne Dobres
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Correspondence to Marcia-Anne Dobres .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

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Dobres, MA. (2014). Agency in Archaeological Theory. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_252

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_252

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

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