Full Description
Stag and Stone is a timely and innovative evaluation of the interdisciplinary dialogue between religious studies and archaeology. Investigating the core concepts of materiality, perception, ritual and agency, this volume redefines conceptual categories and argues for the need of 'critical bewilderment' as a unique scholarly practice.
This study brings together recent developments in religious aesthetics, theoretical archaeology and cultural studies. Taking as its focus 'troublesome' objects and places—those deemed ambiguous in purpose and meaning—the case studies presented here contribute new knowledge to a range of areas, including the ontology of matter, agency of images, animal-human studies, and early medieval norse and insular material culture.
Stag and Stone offers useful insights to upper level undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in the areas of heritage and cultural studies, theoretical archaeology, animal studies, religious studies and art history.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: Of Stags on Stones
Section I: QUIXOTIC MATERIALITY
Chapter 1: Matter: Cultivation and Co-Learning
Chapter 2: Spheres of Debate: Discussing Ambiguous Objects
Chapter 3: Antler Aesthetics: Alternate Epistemologies and Material Culture
Section II: IRREGULAR ANIMALITY
Chapter 4: Static Shamans: Agency and Iconography
Chapter 5: Transpecies Narrative: Strange and Shifty Beasts
Section III: DISORIENTATED DISOURSES
Chapter 6: Speaking Stones: Runic Inscriptions and the Legacy of Religious Discourse on their Interpretation
Chapter 7: Landscape Amulets: Materiality, Animality and Ecological Responsibility
Conclusion: Inconclusive: Ethical Enchantment and Politics of Bewilderment
