Symbols in action at 40: Baringo and Beyond

When

Thursday, September 22, 2022 - 09:15 to Friday, September 23, 2022 - 17:30

Event series

Event speaker

Various

2022 marks 40 years since the publication of ‘Symbols in Action’ (SiA) by Ian Hodder. The book was highly influential in the emergence of post-processual archaeology and changing archaeological thought around the world. To mark the four decades since the publication of SiA, a two-day conference will focus on the influence and contributions of the book to theory more broadly, and to the archaeology and material culture in Africa in particular. Researchers from archaeology, history, and anthropology will:

discuss the work’s continued presence in archaeological thought and that of other disciplines in Europe, Africa and N. and S. America,
how Hodder’s findings in and around Baringo can be contextualised in light of more recent research, as well as
how we can further develop theoretical contributions to re-shape the global body of archaeological research, make the results relevant to living communities, promote participation, and constructively engage with contemporary cultural issues.

The conference will take place on the 22nd and 23rd September 2022 between 9.30am and 5.30pm at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, and online. The two days will consist of 20-minute papers from invited speakers followed by discussions and conversations between Ian Hodder, Henrietta Moore, and Michael Parker Pearson. The first day will focus on developments and perspectives from Europe and the Americas, while the second day will focus on East Africa. The programme follows below.

Registration details

The conference will be livestreamed on Zoom, and you can register for each day separately through Eventbrite.

Day 1 (22nd September): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/symbols-in-action-at-40-day-1-europe-the-americas-and-africa-tickets-370558579687

Day 2 (23rd September): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/symbols-in-action-at-40-day-2-material-histories-baringo-tickets-379101802697

Programme

Download a pdf of the programme: Symbols in Action at 40

Slight changes to the programme can still occur.

Thursday 22nd September

Time	Speaker	Title
9.15 – 10.00	Registration
Archaeological perspectives on the legacies and impact of Symbols in Action
10.00 – 10.25	Nik Petek-Sargeant, Matt Davies & Paul Lane	Welcome & Introduction
Symbols of Power, Identity & Personhood in the British and European Neolithic
10.25 – 10.45	Julian Thomas	Symbols in Action and British Prehistory
10.45 – 11.05	Niall Sharples	The Orcadian Neolithic: A case study in contextual archaeology
11.05 – 11.25	COFFEE
11.25 – 11.45	Annelou van Gijn	Of old and new and mine and ours: beads and pendants from Dutch Neolithic burial contexts
11.45 – 12.15	Chair: Christopher Evans	Discussion
12.15 – 13.30	LUNCH
Discard, Structured Deposition and Symbolic Practice in the US Southwest & Mesoamerica
13.30 – 13.50	Kelly Goldberg	Symbolizing identity: Material culture, transnationalism, and mobility of agents of the Transatlantic African Diaspora
13.50 – 14.10	Scott Hutson	The meanings of discard in Mesoamerica
14.10 – 14.30	Samantha Fladd & E. Charles Adams	Ash and “trash” in action: A US Southwest perspective
14.30 – 15.00	Chair: Katherine Grillo	Discussion
15.00 - 15.20	TEA
Revisiting Ethnoarchaeology and African Material Culture Studies
15.20 – 15.40	Olivier Gosselain & Alexandre Livingstone-Smith	While we were sleeping. What archaeologists did with African material culture and what it did to them
15.40 – 16.00	Worku Derara, Alfredo González-Ruibal & Bula Wayessa	Symbols and things in action in western Ethiopia. Ethnoarchaeological approaches.
16.00 – 16.20	Chair: Freda Nkirote	Discussion
16.20 -16.30	PAUSE
16.30 – 17.30	Mike Parker Pearson & Ian Hodder	Reflections, commentary and open discussion

Friday 23rd September

Time	Speaker	Title
Historicising Material Practices around Lake Baringo, Kenya
9.30 – 9.50	Nik Petek-Sargeant	Conformity through material culture and time: A diachronic perspective on Ilchamus (Njemps) identities
9.50 – 10.10	Katherine Grillo	Pots in action: Extra thoughts on symbols and subsistence in Samburu
10.10 – 10.30	Matthew Davies	Symbols in time and space: Marakwet material culture and landscape
10.30 – 11.00	Chair: Alexandre Livingstone-Smith	Discussion
11.00 – 11.20	COFFEE
Material Histories, Absence and Becoming: Revisiting Analogy
11.20 – 11.40	David Kay	Analogies of Absence, or “I dug a hole, there wasn’t much in it, what now...?”
11.40 – 12.10	Emmanuel Ndiema	Monumental architecture in Turkana Basin: Places of worship or habitation?
12.10 – 12.30	Sam Derbyshire	Turkana, in the making
12.30 – 13.00	Chair: Kelly Goldberg	Discussion
13.00 – 14.00	LUNCH
Beyond Static Presents: Analogies and Deep History
14.00 – 14.20	Fleur Martin	Scarcity and accumulation: Teleki’s caravan at Lake Baringo
14.20 – 14.40	David Anderson	The rise and fall of ‘Njemps’: A history of cultural transition in Kenya's Rift Valley, c. 1830 to 1920
14.40 – 15.00	Paul Lane	Deep history, archaeology, and the percolation of time in African material assemblages
15.00 – 15.30	Chair: Matt Davies	Discussion
15.30 – 16.00	TEA
16.00 – 17.00	Ian Hodder in conversation with Henrietta Moore	Reflections & responses
17.00 – 17.20	Nik Petek-Sargeant & Matthew Davies	Publication plans & close
17.20 – 17.30	Vote of Thanks
17.30	CLOSE