Resumo
In this paper I would like to introduce the idea of non-objects as an experiment extended from Augé’s concept of non-places (rather as its meaning in cognitive science), but referred to archaeological constructs. In short, the non-objects I am focusing on here are those elements in archaeology that are insignificant as objects in themselves, but which acquire meaning when analysed as part of an assemblage (e.g. ceramic sherds, ecofacts, building materials, etc). These assemblages, constructed by archaeologists over the years, have crystallised and become black boxes that channel the interpretation of non-objects. But what happens if we free the non-objects from these chains and search to analyse them in relation to other assemblages, following flows that break the traditional boundaries? What I am describing here will be familiar those familiar with New Materialism. My concept of non-object, indeed, has more of Deleuzean metaphysics than of Augean anthropology, but achieves the same effect of destabilizing categories when it is needed. I will argue in this paper that the analysis of Islamization will require precisely the consideration of non-object biographies, as a way to follow flows of change and permanence that explain what Islamization means in a particular context (rather than trying to explain that context from the perspective of Islamization). The aim of this analysis of flow is to describe and to map to understand Islamization at different scales.I will offer two examples from my own work and two more from two former PhD students: The first one is based on an assemblage of a set of fishing net weights found in the site of Yughbī, in Qatar, and dating from the Umayyad period. This is an excellent example of how undoing a ‘given’ assemblage (the set of net weights, and then the weights themselves) and creating new ones with the non-objects (the weights as ceramic and stone sherds) can give us a very rich insight on the connectivity and networks of Yughbī first and of the whole Arabian-Persian Gulf at another scale. Doing something similar in a very different context, my former PhD student (and now colleague) Mikel Herrán Subiñas has contributed to redefine the concept of house and its correlated concept of ‘household’ in the period of Islamisation of al-Andalus, showing different patterns of development of Islamisation depending on a number of factors. Mikel basically took apart the concept of house by breaking up its constitutive elements and considering them in themselves across a number of different archaeological context, exemplified mainly in the cities of Zaragoza and Cordoba. The next two examples focus on social and economic organisation as reflected in ceramic technology. In my own work, I have analysed the Islamisation of the area of the Vega of Granada, in South East Spain, by tracing the development and application of particular technological segments of the chaînes opératoires used to produce cooking pots. The pattern shows that Islamisation was related to patter of technological dispersion first and coalescence afterwards that changed ceramic production forever. The second example of this section is Jelena´s Živković´s study of Belgrade ceramic production, that similarly show patterns of dispersion and coalescence, but under a much more determined sponsorship by the state.
Palabras chave
Islamization. Object Biographies. Non-Object Flows.