Beyond Representations

Animating Figurative Imagery in Archaeology

Abstract

This special section of Current Swedish Archaeology explores the relationship between figuration, animacy, and abstract imagery within the archaeology and ethnography of figurines. Departing from traditional representationalist approaches that have long been the modi operandi in the study of figurative imagery, as well as in the archaeology of figurines, the papers adopt ontological, new animist, and new materialist perspectives, viewing figurines not as mere depictions but as active entities affecting their makers, users and environments. They discuss non-representational theoretical approaches in relation to archaeological materials from middle Neolithic Fennoscandia, Neolithic and Iron Age Britain and Ireland, and ethnographic approaches focused on the recent past and present of Indigenous groups in Northwestern Siberia. Together the contributions seek to highlight the complexity of figurine research and the need for interdisciplinary methodologies and innovative treatments to properly reanimate both research and the figurines themselves.