The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

Animal Agency

The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway - Kristin Armstrong Oma

Kristin Armstrong Oma [+-]
University of Stavanger
Dr. Kristin Armstrong Oma is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the University of Stavanger, Archaeological museum (2013-present). She is an archaeologist and holds a PhD in archaeology from the University of Southampton (2002-2004), and a postdoctoral fellowship in archaeology from the University of Oslo (2010-2013). Previously, she was a junior lecturer in the department of archaeology at the University of Oslo, and has also participated in a wide range of archaeological fieldwork. Her research is situated in-between archaeology and human-animal studies. In her scholarly work she actively engages in arenas of archaeology and also of interdisciplinary human-animal studies arenas. She has published extensively on the relationships between humans and animals in the past, and she was guest editor of a Society and Animals special issue on archaeology, as well as co-editor of a World Archaeology volume called Humans and Animals.

Description

Chapter 3 makes a case for seeing animals as beings with agency. It challenges the recent archaeological theoretical discussions in which objects are afforded agency by discussing the nature of agency. It maps out how agency works as a cross-species interaction that produces meaning and particular, shared practices. The discussion draws upon feminist theory and critique of normative science, particularly the idea of mutual becoming and speciesism. A discussion of posthumanism brings out problems and possibilities within the field, and leads to the conclusion that regarding archaeology, an understanding of datasets informed by prehumanism should be sought. The chapter ends with a discussion of the ontological turn and how the theoretical framework can create an understanding of the ontological status given to animals in different societies.

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Citation

Armstrong Oma, Kristin. Animal Agency. The Sheep People - The Ontology of Making Lives, Building Homes and Forging Herds in Early Bronze Age Norway. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 35-50 Jun 2018. ISBN 9781781792513. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=26513. Date accessed: 11 Dec 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.26513. Jun 2018

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