
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Moving Beyond Powerful Individuals and Status—The Life Histories of Things Moving Beyond Powerful Individuals and Status—The Life Histories of Things
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Identity and Personhood Identity and Personhood
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Personal Ornaments Personal Ornaments
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Stone Tools Stone Tools
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Sex and Gender Sex and Gender
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Acknowledgements Acknowledgements
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References References
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30 Identity, Gender, and Power: Life Histories of Personal Ornaments, Stone Tools, and Other Artefacts
Get accessSolange Rigaud, French National Centre for Scientific Research
Aimée Little, University of York
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Published:20 February 2025
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Abstract
The study of past material culture and related practices can be insightful for exploring the construction of past identities. Approaches employed to explore the production and negotiation of identity in the archaeological record rely on a broad range of cultural proxies. However, the funerary record is most commonly used to address questions of gender, identity, and to reconstruct social organization. In this chapter, recent conceptual, theoretical, and methodological developments in the exploration of past identities in Mesolithic Europe are discussed through the scope of object life histories approach. Objects, like humans, possess life histories, and through a focus on primary archaeological deposits, we are gaining critical insights into the role everyday things played in shaping social identity within Mesolithic society. Advances in archaeological science have enabled researchers to push the boundaries of object life histories by extending deep into the biographical histories of stones, bones, and other materials transformed into beads, tools, and other objects. This chapter encourages a nuanced and multidimensional focus, pushing beyond the typochronologies that have dominated past narratives, to reveal how the essence of different materials were drawn upon, in life and in death, through artefacts.
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