Abstract
Decades ago I argued for the limited analytic purchase of the term “art.” I was then primarily concerned with the relatively recent invention of the present day category; the lack of local and archaeological specificity when “art” was discussed in broad classificatory lumps; and the minimal reflection on the geopolitical ground of archaeological practice. While I continue to find little analytic value in the term “art” when used to describe a broad range of prehistoric materials, I offer a defense of its transactional nature. I embrace the term “art” to show some of the classificatory work the term has done and the potential it may have if decoupled from certainty. I will show that the category “prehistoric art” has been historically controlled through networks of materials, archives, and scholars. As a contrasting point of reference, the concept of a boundary object, a productive term in science studies, might allow for a far greater flexibility and inclusion of different communities to participate in the conversation about “art.” To illustrate my point, I discuss technologies and temporalities of art at Wildebeest Kuil, Northern Cape, South Africa.
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Funding
Funding for the project was generously provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The fieldwork in South Africa has been supported and intellectually sustained over the years by Dr. David Morris, McGregor Museum, Kimberley, and Muzi Msimanga who has been the best field assistant I could have ever asked for. Peter Redfield shared stylistic and editorial boundary objects where only coherence was necessary. Audiences at the Schloß Conversation in Tübingen in 2019, the Royal Anthropological Institute, and at the UISPP conferences in 2018 heard versions of the paper and offered useful feedback. All errors in interpretation remain with the author.
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Tomášková, S. Prehistoric Art as a Boundary Object: Technology and Temporality of South African Petroglyphs. J Archaeol Method Theory 27, 526–544 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09470-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09470-x