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 |
