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SUMMARY:A manifesto for the 'how' question (and for things) in social scie
 nce - Astrid Van Oyen\, Faculty of Classics
DTSTART:20151013T170000Z
DTEND:20151013T180000Z
UID:TALK62202@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:20337
DESCRIPTION:Archaeology and anthropology analyse how people do things\, in
  the past and in the present. But both the 'things' and the 'doing' in thi
 s phrase are subsequently filtered out of these disciplines' interpretive 
 narratives. At most\, things respond to human needs or slot into human sch
 emes of meaning. At the same time\, how people do things is seen as a mere
  illustration to the real historical questions of 'who' does things and 'w
 hy' do they do things. Nevertheless\, it is the question of 'how' that rev
 eals the close interdependency of people and things. In this presentation\
 , I will argue that the key to rethinking human-thing relations is to gran
 t a historical\, explanatory role to the 'how' question. Based on examples
  drawn from my work on Roman material culture\, I will illustrate how this
  changes historical narratives and current dilemmas.
LOCATION:Bamford Room\, Homerton College
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