(Re)assembling Communities

This article seeks to bring together studies of community from both the New and Old Worlds and examine their various strengths and weaknesses. Whilst applauding many of the recent developments, particularly the emphasis on communities as the outcome of practice and agency, I suggest that there are t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of archaeological method and theory 2014-03, Vol.21 (1), p.76-97
Main Author: Harris, Oliver J. T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archaeological paradigms
Archaeology
Communities
Community
Community identity
Community relations
Community structure
Cultural anthropology
Cultural identity
Historical archaeology
Humans
Imagined communities
Prehistoric era
Social Sciences
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Summary:This article seeks to bring together studies of community from both the New and Old Worlds and examine their various strengths and weaknesses. Whilst applauding many of the recent developments, particularly the emphasis on communities as the outcome of practice and agency, I suggest that there are three specific difficulties present in the current studies of community: an underlying subtext which supports modern political notions of community as a timeless form of sociality; a prominent anthropocentric vision of community as the province purely of human beings; and a failure to folly embrace the role of affect and emotion. By rethinking communities as assemblages, this article seeks to build on the firm foundations constructed in the last 15 years to present new possibilities for taking this important concept forward.
ISSN:1072-5369
1573-7764
DOI:10.1007/s10816-012-9138-3