A stone that feels right in the hand

Tactile memory, the abduction of agency and presence of the past

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2391101
AutoresJohn Harries (0000-0001-7359-8419, The University of Edinburgh, UK, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume22
Fascículo1
Páginas110-130
Data de publicação2017-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183516679187
OpenAlexW2556569853
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas22
Referências citadas54

This article is a theoretical and ethnographic exploration of the possibility of 'touching the past'. Drawing on fieldwork from Newfoundland, Canada, and in conversation with Gell's Art and Agency (1998), it focuses on the process of abduction whereby, in their discovery and handling, pieces of stone become artefacts that index the presence of an absent other. It is argued that through this tactile process of becoming an artefactual index, the distinction between past and present is momentarily dissolved, enfolded into the fit between stone and hand, giving rise to the possibility of historical sensation and the feeling of pastness

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Art · Conversation · Epistemology · Ethnography · Feeling · Index (typography · Process (computing · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Communication · Computer Science · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology