British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Social Brain, Distributed Mind
Abstract
Networks and the evolution of socio-material differentiation
Carl Knappett (Exeter)
Viewed over the long term, the Neolithic and Bronze Age sees the emergence not only of social differentiation, but also of material differentiation. By the latter I mean the growth in the extent and diversity of artefactual assemblages. These twin processes of social and material differentiation are fundamentally connected, each enacting the other: hence the term 'sociomaterial differentiation'. This process of differentiation creates new 'agent-artefact spaces', such that objects and things are increasingly separable from the immediacy of the human body and its gestures. Through their particular affordances, artefacts can bring practices into being by acting as reservoirs for future action, scaffolds for learning or pivots for reflexivity. Using examples from the material culture of the Aegean Neolithic and Bronze Age, I shall outline some of the ways in which artefactual assemblages enact human practice. These data will form the basis for further reflection on the advantages to be found in distributed sociomaterial connectivity, and the suitability of 'network' and 'meshwork' approaches at different scale of analysis. Finally, some conclusions are tentatively offered on the role of networks in increasing the resilience of human communities of practice.