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The Huxley Memorial Lecture 2009
Human - Thing Entanglement: Towards an Integrated Archaeological Perspective:
Professor Ian Hodder, Dunlevie Family Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University, argues the potential for a synthetic approach centred on human-thing entanglement.
Followed by refreshments in the west foyer.
Free, no pre-booking, limited seating.
Speaker(s): |
Professor Ian Hodder | talks |
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Date and Time: |
2 November 2009 at 5:45 pm |
Duration: | TBC |
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Venue: |
British Museum |
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Tickets: |
£5, Concessions £3 |
Available from: |
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Additional Information: |
Enquiries to: RAI, 50 Fitzroy St, London W1T 5BT; tel 020 7387 0455; email admin@therai.org.uk |
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Dissapointing
Posted at 10:58 PM on 24 November, 2013 by Haines Brown
First, Hodder fails to distinguish causal influence and dependence. Mutual causality (feedback loops) is usual in the world. However, dependence implies more---the dependence not of properties but of a state on its environment. I suggests this it is the far-from-equilibrium state associated with life.
Second, dependence on an environment that one has created is common in the animal world. Most animals create or shape social or physical niches on which they depend. For example, the octopus can organize coconut shells as a protective shield. This kind of behavior can be the case for a biofilm, where a bacterium builds a social community on which it depends.
Finally, the root problem seems to be the presumption of entity foundationalism in which things are defined by their intrinsic observables at spatiotemporal points and thus are conceptually or physically closed.This makes everything an artifact of past or present circumstances. This unequivocal determinism is surely not what Hodder wishes to embrace.
Haines Brown