Material signs and relational meanings

Reconsidering Ancestral Pueblo material dichotomies

Bibliographic Data

ID3919002
AuthorsH V Mattson (0000-0001-6716-1456, University of New Mexico, corresponding author), E L Jones (0000-0002-9927-7469, University of New Mexico)
Year2020
Volume52
Issue3
Pages412-428
Publication date2020-05-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.2021.1909494
OpenAlexW3154372451
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited135

Using archaeological materials from the pre-Hispanic American Southwest, we explore how insights from both new materialism/posthumanism and Peircean semiotics enrich our understanding of object meanings. We highlight two artefact classes commonly found in contexts interpreted as ritual: avian osteological remains and red pigment. Drawing on archaeological evidence and a rich ethnographic record, we consider their diverse associations and uses with regard to their positions within relational assemblages and their qualities as material signs. Focusing specifically on the increase in avian remains in the Middle Rio Grande region in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the association of red pigment with lapidary production in Chaco Canyon in the tenth to twelfth centuries, we identify how these materials are linked to disparate objects and contexts through iconicity and indexicality. We point to the relational constitution of object meaning as confounding analytical taxonomies that are traditionally applied to these materials

Archaeology · Epistemology · Iconicity · Indexicality · Linguistics · Materialism · Meaning (existential · Object (grammar · Osteology · Semiotics · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Philosophy

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