Bjørnar Olsen: In Defense of Things. Archaeology and the Ontology of Objects

Authors

  • Hanne Hammer Stien

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/nm.3153

Abstract

En rekke titler har de siste årene satt ting og materialitet på den akademiske dagsorden. Felles for flere av disse bidragene er en kritikk av den språklige vendingen som har vært en dominerende inngang til kulturstudier, spesi- elt på 1980- og -90-tallet. Ved å fokusere på diskurs, tekst og tegn mener kritikerne at den materielle siden av kulturen har vært oversett på tross av at materiell kultur har vært et sen- tralt begrep i forskningen. (Damsholt, Simonsen og Mordhorst 2010:9-10; Dudley 2010:1- 2; Olsen 2010). Bjørnar Olsen er professor i arkeologi ved Universitetet i Tromsø. Hans siste bok, In Defense of Things, føyer seg inn i rekken av bøker som vektlegger at tingene eksisterer i relasjon til, og på lik linje med mennesker, planter og dyr. I motsetning til flere utgivelser som fokuserer på performativitet og gjøren av materialiteter konsentrerer Olsen seg om det han kaller integriteten til tingene. (Olsen 2010:172) Boken vil i denne sammenhengen vekke begeis- tring hos lesere med interesse for tingteori. Den kan samtidig fungere som en tekstbok for de som ønsker en innføring i fenomenologi og actor-network-theory. I artikkelen ”Momen- ter til et forsvar for tingene” (2004), publisert i Nordisk Museologi, argumenterte Olsen for at tingene ikke må ignoreres av vitenskapen. Hans resonnement underbygges og videreutvikles i In Defense of Things. 

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Issue

No. 1 (2011)

Section

Book reviews

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