When: March 2nd (Thursday), 5.00-6.30 PM CET, online

Organized by: Transdisciplinarity: Independent Academic Initiative


Speaker:
Carl Knappett (University of Toronto, Canada), Informal institutions as resilient networks: lessons from archaeology

Moderator: Arkadiusz Marciniak (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Abstract:
The use of network methods and concepts has flourished in archaeology over the past decade. In particular, the regional interactions that are so prevalent in almost all past societies are very usefully conceived and modelled as networks. But did such networks emerge bottom-up as a crucial mechanism for the survival of ancient communities, or were they imposed top-down by elites eager to benefit from trade? Or did elites take advantage of existing structures? We might expect these various scenarios to display different levels of resilience. And as archaeologists increasingly question the rigid typologies through which we have categorised ancient societies, and the hierarchical institutions typically assumed to have been central to the emergence of complex societies, the opportunity arises to imagine institutional creativity in terms of informal networks. I will explore these issues through a case study from Mediterranean prehistory, in which network methods are instrumental in allowing us to see more or less resilience in the ways ancient societies connect.