James M. Skibo & Michael Brian Schiffer. People and things: a behavioural approach to material culture.

Gaydarska, Bisserka

JAMES M. SKIBO & MICHAEL BRIAN SCHIFFER. People and things: a behavioural approach to material culture. xiv+170 pages, 16 figures, 2 tables. 2008. New York: Springer; 978-0-387-76524-2 hardback $89.95.

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Skibo and Schiffer's new book will come as a surprise to many archaeologists. The surprise will be lesser for those who were following closely either the principles of Behavioural Archaeology (henceforth BA) or those studying the history of archaeological thought who would recognise changing fashions in expressive jargon--e.g. from 'life history of elements in systemic context' (Schiffer 1976: 46) to 'complex and intimate relationship between people and artefacts' (People and things: 121-2). The surprise will be greater for the majority of archaeologists (mainly outside North America) who either rejected BA because of its early attempts to define general laws in archaeology or have simply been overwhelmed by the ever-growing literature on archaeological theory and missed the recent developments in BA. The surprise will be Skibo and Schiffer's claim that topics such as 'the relationship between people and things', 'life-history', 'social power' and the like--more readily associated with any kind of archaeology but BA--are actually part of the long-term and developing research agenda of BA.

The book follows the previously adopted approach of re-printing articles as a collection (Schiffer 1995) and generally fits into a broader strategy of constant refining and updating the BA model (Schiffer & Skibo 1987 and 1997; Schiffer & Miller 1999; Schiffer et al. 2001). If it is to win over opponents of BA, one may ask whether this is a wise choice of publishing strategy. The volume consists of six already published case studies, amplified by two new chapters The case studies appeared between 1995 and 2007 and form a useful overview of modified, flexible BA method and theory, with its potential for engaging with a variety of research questions: the origins of pottery based on analysis of morphological characteristics and use-alternation traces of the earliest pottery on the Colorado Plateau (Chapter 3); the function of pit features through an application of performance-based analysis (Chapter 4); the invention processes in complex technological systems through the introduction of the 'cascade' model and illustrated by the electromagnetic telegraph (Chapter 5); the social implications of the design of a particular feature, again through performance-based analysis, in this case of Animas-phase ball courts in the American Southwest (Chapter 6); the construction of historical narratives by analysing the reasons for the demise of the electric car (Chapter 7); and finally the crucial issues of technology transfer, as demonstrated by eighteenth-century electrical technology (Chapter 8). There is an interesting trend in the language of the chapters that starts off as more nuanced and interactive but slowly becomes more strident and insistent on the virtues of BA. The link between the chapters will be apparent to those familiar with the development of BA ideas but less obvious to those new in application of theory to practice or to those sceptical of BA. New in the book are a first chapter that unites the function of introduction and conclusion and one original chapter (Chapter 2) which attempts to reconcile the principles of BA with recent theoretical constructs, such as 'agency' and 'practice'. It is a pity that the discussion and comparative analysis in this chapter is not developed more explicitly with new case studies, rather than recycling old research.

I am in sympathy with the intentions of the book, one of which may be seen as an attempt to integrate different archaeological approaches (e.g. BA and agency theory) in contrast to the deepening process of fragmentation of the discipline (Fletcher 1989; Chapman 2000). The authors also intend to offer concepts that everyone can borrow and use without necessarily engaging with the entire programme of BA (p. 5). However, too many important and complex issues are packed into such a small book. Each issue discussed in the chapters needs a new case study that would build on the newly articulated theoretical framework but with explicit links to the new-style BA model. The resemblance of this expanded model, with its enhanced performance characteristics (to use the jargon of the book), to founding BA principles is probably clear for its followers but this is certainly not the case for the wider archaeological audience. For example, the differences and similarities between Bourdieu's notion of 'field' and BA's concept of 'cadena' are well defined in Chapter 2 (a 'cadena', Spanish for chain, refers to all the social interactors involved in an artefact's chain or life history). But what is not clear is that 'cadena' is a fairly recent concept, therefore not used in earlier studies and hence not easy to follow in the six case studies.

I fear that this combination of new arguments and old case studies may fail in the authors' aim of promoting a rejuvenated BA to those who were never in favour of that agenda. For all the talk of 'people', 'agency' and 'things', the underlying behaviour is never as close to social practices as they suggest. And the 'people' discussed in BA theory are rarely flesh and blood. Nonetheless, anyone tempted to take up the challenge of engaging with the case studies will be rewarded with a stimulating reconstruction of some fascinating and complex phenomena.

References

CHAPMAN, J.C. 2000. Fragmentation in archaeology: people, places, and broken objects in the prehistory of south-eastern Europe. London: Routledge.

FLETCHER, R. 1989. Social theory and archaeology: diversity, paradox and potential, in J.R. Rhoads (ed.) Australian Reviews of Anthropology. Mankind 19: 65-75.

SCHIFFER, M.B. 1976. Behavioral archaeology. New York: Academic Press.

--1995. Behavioral archaeology: first principles. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.

SCHIFFER, M.B. & J.M. SKIBO. 1987. Theory and experiment in the study of technological change. Current Anthropology 28: 595-622.

--1997. The explanation of artefact variability. American Antiquity 62: 27-50.

SCHIFFER, M.B. & A.R. MILLER. 1999. A behavioral theory of meaning, in J.M. Skibo & G.M. Feinman (ed.) Pottery and people: a dynamic interaction: 199-217. Salt Lake City (UT): University of Utah Press.

SCHIFFER, M.B., J.M. SKIBO, J.M. GRIFFITHS, K.L. HOLLENBACK & W.A. LONGACRE. 2001. Behavioral archaeology and the study of technology. American Antiquity 66: 729-37.

BISSERKA GAYDARSKA

Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK (Email: bisserka.gaydarska@durham.ac.uk)