Agency in ancient writing / / edited by Joshua Englehardt

• Pubblicazione: Boulder, : University Press of Colorado, c2012
• Edizione: 1st ed.
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (289 p.)
• Disciplina: 411/.7
• Soggetto topico: Writing - Social aspects; Agent (Philosophy); Paleography; Social archaeology
• Altri autori: EnglehardtJoshua
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction : individual intentionality, social structure, and material agency in early writing and emerging script technologies / Joshua Englehardt and Dimitri Nakassis -- The mediated image : reflections on semasiographic notation in the ancient Americas / Margaret A. Jackson -- Bureaucratic backlashes : bureaucrats as agents of socioeconomic change in proto-historic Mesopotamia / Clemens Reichel -- Are writing systems intelligently designed? / Adam D. Smith -- Agency in death : early Egyptian writing from mortuary contexts / Laurel Bestock -- Reembodying identity : seals and seal impressions as agents of social change on late prepalatial Crete / Emily S.K. Anderson -- Performance, presence, and genre in Maya hieroglyphs : a case study in the agency of writing / Michael D. Carrasco -- Contingency and innovation in native transcriptions of encrypted cuneiform (ud.gal.nun) / J. Cale Johnson and Adam Johnson -- Structuration of the conjuncture : agency in classic Maya iconography and texts / Joshua Englehardt -- Inscriptions from Zhongshan : Chinese texts and the archaeology of agency / Wang Haicheng -- Structuration and the state in Mycenaean Greece / Dimitri Nakassis -- Epilogue : agency and writing / Ruth D. Whitehouse.
• Sommario/riassunto: Individual agents are frequently evident in early writing and notational systems, yet these systems have rarely been subjected to the concept of agency as it is traceable in archeology. Agency in Ancient Writing addresses this oversight, allowing archeologists to identify and discuss real, observable actors and actions in the archaeological record. Embracing myriad ways in which agency can be interpreted, ancient writing systems from Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Crete, China, and Greece are examined from a textual perspective as both archaeological objects and nascent historical documents. This allows for distinction among intentions, consequences, meanings, and motivations, increasing understanding and aiding interpretation of the subjectivity of social actors. Chapters focusing on acts of writing and public recitation overlap with those addressing the materiality of texts, interweaving archaeology, epigraphy, and the study of visual symbol systems. Agency in Ancient Writing leads to a more thorough and meaningful discussion of agency as an archaeological concept and will be of interest to anyone interested in ancient texts, including archaeologists, historians, linguists, epigraphers, and art historians, as well as scholars studying agency and structuration theory.
• Titolo autorizzato: Agency in ancient writing
• ISBN: 9781607322092; 1607322099; 9781457174049; 1457174049
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910962644003321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II