Homo addictus: archaeological science and human material relations through time (Part 2)

Besides biological essentials, humans thrive on materials and derive comfort from objects. This entangles people, materials, and things. At dividual and individual levels, making, mending, and consuming things creates and lubricates social relationships and obligations. Peering into the deep past, humans and their ancestors initially worked materials such as stone to make tools, and with time made more things appealing to sensory, utilitarian, and symbolic functions and desires. Increased cycles of exchange and interconnections at various scales, from the local, and regional to the global, have through time, brought people and regions of the world closely together. In the 21^st century, human material relations reached a point where people and things are almost inseparable. While some may think that this dependence and interdependence is natural, parts of the world such as the Global North are experiencing massive problems with overconsumption of materials and things. Furthermore, there are huge challenges with deskilling â€" many people are no longer able to make or mend things â€" they replace broken things with new ones. For every ounce of overconsumption in the Global North, there however is corresponding malnourishment in parts of the Global South. Regardless of whether a region over or under produces or over or under consumes it is similarly affected by global warming and weather extremes which appear to be affecting everyone across the globe regardless of their share of contribution to the problem. For example, impacts caused by extraction and processing of resources to sustain economic growth in global economies (e.g., pollution and the destruction of heritage) are felt more in regions where resources are extracted, while the comfort of things is enjoyed in regions where wealth and technology are concentrated. How did we come to be on this precipice where our love for materials and things poses a serious risk to the planet and to ourselves? Why is it that the more we think we are advancing economically and technologically, the more the impact we cause on the planet and the more the inequality becomes deeply entrenched? Is our notion of development or progress therefore a form of going wayward? In this two-part lecture, I engage with these questions drawing from my research in archaeological science, anthropology of technology and history of technology to argue that a radical mindset shift is required if we are to save ourselves and the planet from our addiction to things. Looking at human material relations across space and time, through a combined lenses of cosmology and material analysis, I draw on examples from Great Zimbabwe, and human material relations in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds to argue that cosmological shifts may solve some of our challenges with sustainability. Part 1 lays out the conceptual framework while Part 2 applies the conceptual framework to detailed archaeological case studies to sketch a cosmology buttressed alternative.

Speaker: Shadreck Chirikure, University of Oxford