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book: Agency in Ancient Writing
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Agency in Ancient Writing

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Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2012

About this book

Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record.

 

Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems.

 

Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.


Author / Editor information

Joshua Englehardt is a postdoctoral research associate in Art History and adjunct professor of anthropology at Florida State University.

Reviews

"Through the lens of agency, contributors successfully rethink the nature of ancient texts. In so doing they ably demonstrate that when a new theoretical orientation is applied to a taken-for-granted category of data it invigorates both the data and our understanding of the past."
—Marcia-Anne Dobres, University of Maine

Topics

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    Front Matter

    i
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    Contents

    v
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    Figures

    vii
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    Tables

    xi
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    Foreword

    xiii
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    Acknowledgments

    xvii
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    Introduction Individual Intentionality, Social Structure, and Material Agency in Early Writing and Emerging Script Technologies

    1
    Joshua Englehardt and Dimitri Nakassis
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  • Part I Agency in the Formation of Early Writing and Notational Systems
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    One The Mediated Image

    21
    Margaret A. Jackson
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    Two Bureaucratic Backlashes

    45
    Clemens Reichel
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    Three Are Writing Systems Intelligently Designed?

    71
    Adam D. Smith
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    Four Agency in Death

    95
    Laurel Bestock
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  • Part II The Material Agency of Early Writing and Incipient Scripts
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    Five Reembodying Identity

    115
    Emily S.K. Anderson
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    Six Performance, Presence, and Genre in Maya Hieroglyphs

    139
    Michael D. Carrasco
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    Seven Contingency and Innovation in Native Transcriptions of Encrypted Cuneiform (UD.GAL.NUN)

    165
    J. Cale Johnson and Adam Johnson
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  • Part III Agency through Writing and Early Texts
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    Eight Structuration of the Conjuncture

    185
    Joshua Englehardt
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    Nine Inscriptions from Zhongshan

    209
    Wang Haicheng
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    Ten Structuration and the State in Mycenaean Greece

    231
    Dimitri Nakassis
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    Epilogue: Agency and Writing

    249
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    References

    257
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    List of Contributors

    289
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    Index

    293
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 11, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9781607322092
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https://doi.org/10.5876/9781607322092
eBook ISBN: 9781607322092
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