Household Archaeology in the Middle East and Beyond: Theory, Method and Practice
The Middle East Center at the University of Utah is pleased to announce a conference entitled “Household Archaeology in the Middle East and Beyond: Theory, Method and Practice” to be held February 19-21, 2009 at Fort Douglas on the campus of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
The importance and basic tenets of household archaeology were laid out several decades ago by Flannery (1976) and Wilk and Rathje (1982). At this time, anthropological archaeologists were seeking ways to augment their approaches to the archaeological record by integrating various scales of analysis in their research designs (Redman 1973). As part of this trend scholars increasingly focused their attention on the inter-workings of societies by examining the variation within and between households and in doing so many scholars have come to believe that large scale social, economic and political change begins not at the societal or regional level, but through the everyday actions of individual people at the household level (Smith 1987; Roseberry 1988). In spite of the fact that Household Archaeology has since become integral to archaeological practice and new analytical methodologies including (but not limited to) microdebris analysis, micromorphology and soil chemistry have been developed, Household Archaeology remains a defuse field with few unified theoretical or methodological approaches. This conference aims to rectify this situation by bringing together scholars from around the world whose research interests focus on some aspect of the theory, method and practice of Household Archaeology.
The premise of this conference is that households are the loci of iterative actions where personal identities and economic, social and ideological interests of family or co-habitant groups intersect with and shape the trajectory of communities, conditioning community participation in broader socio-political processes. Material culture patterns are produced through, and are therefore a reflection of, dialectic interactions between local groups and larger regional processes. By tracking and comparing “household assemblages” (discrete patterns of ceramics, flora, fauna, tools, architecture, etc.) archaeologists can discern how households, the basic socio-economic unit, harness or diffuse opportunities for distinction and social differentiation within a community based on changes in modes of production, access to resources and patterns of consumption in the material record.
“Household Archaeology in the Middle East and Beyond: Theory, Method and Practice” will examine the current state of Household Archaeology while looking to its future development and wider application. We encourage submissions that advance the theoretical foundations of Household Archaeology, consider new or developing methodologies for studying the household archaeologically, and present the results of case studies with a household focus. The conference organizers plan to publish the conference proceedings.