New Domains of History? Matter, Materiality, and the “Unbearable Lightness of Being”

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an overview of the theoretical contributions from anthropology, archaeology, material culture studies, and materiality studies for historiographical research. It aims to trace some possible alliances between the theoretical apparatus of materiality and the problems identified by recent historiographic trends, integrating that movement into the posthumanism paradigm shift in historical studies. It supports that the transformations which we are currently living reinforce the need of stressing the agency of non-human things in our descriptions and explanations about the world. After describing the trajectory of the theoretical developments in the field, this paper shall demonstrate their diverse potentials of practical application by mentioning recent and concrete approaches. I conclude by weighing the limits and benefits of materiality and by exhorting the historian community to welcome this innovative ontological awareness in their studies.

Keywords:
Historical theory; archaeology; materiality; history of Asia; Ancient History