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Book reviews

edited by Penny Jones


Department of Archaeology and Anthropology
University of Cambridge
pjj25@cam.ac.uk

Archaeologies of Mobility and Movement


Edited by Mary C. Beaudry and Travis G. Parno
2013. New York: Springer
Hbk. 265pp. 70 illus., 39 in colour
ISBN: 978-1-4614-6210-1

Reviewed by Alice J. Rogers


Department of Archaeology, University of Reading

R
ecent years have brought a renewed interest in the topics of mobility
and movement in archaeology, as reflected in a number of publications
and conference topics covering several periods—for example, the
2012 Neolithic Studies Group Meeting titled ‘Movement and Mobility in
the Neolithic’, or the 2010 North American Theoretical Archaeology Group
session, ‘Archaeological Ambulations: Integrative approaches to movement’.

Archaeological Review from Cambridge | 28.2 | 2013 |


196 Book reviews

Along with this renewed interest in movement and mobility in archaeology


there has been a widespread shift from considering the static archaeology of
individual sites to one of analysing dynamic interactions across land (and
sea) -scapes.

This edited volume is the outcome of the Contemporary and


Historical Archaeological Theory group meeting (CHAT 2011) on the
theme of ‘People and things in motion’. As such, the volume covers a wide
range of topics, temporalities and geographical extents, from Austrian
fifteenth century pocket sundials to the modern ruins of the AIR studios on
the Caribbean island of Montserrat. The book is divided into three sections,
framed by introductory and concluding chapters, which examine different
themes relating to movement and mobility: the movement of objects, the
movement of people and movement through space.

The introductory chapter, written by the editors, contains a


comprehensive outline of archaeological perceptions of movement and
mobility, from their origins to how current social geographical theories—
by researchers such as John Urry (2007)—have become influential. It also
succinctly outlines the volume’s papers. As a result, this chapter provides an
excellent framework for the remainder of the volume.

The next four chapters consider the theme of ‘objects in motion’.


The first, Chapter Two, is Visa Immonen’s examination of imported brass
kettles in both the Swedish colony of New Sweden in America and amongst
the indigenous population of Lapland, the northern part of the Swedish
kingdom. This is one of the strongest papers of the volume and examines
how material culture can be affected by movement. In particular, it illustrates
how the meaning of objects can change upon transportation. Furthermore,
by examining the same imported material culture in two places the author is
able to study the mechanics of colonialism by analysing whether indigenous
cultures reacted to these imported items in the same way.

Chapter Four, by Oscar Aldred, examines how to study movement


from the static traces of the archaeological record. He studies the sites and
objects used in sheep farming in present-day Iceland, such as sheep-folds,
and argues that although archaeologists encounter these sites as static, they
were places in which movement was central, as places for gatherings and
meetings of both people and animals. The paper also starts to examine
concepts which relate movement and mobility to those of power and
control; in particular, how controlling a thing or person’s movement gives
you power over them. The final chapter in the section, by Ronald Salzer, is a

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discussion of the recently discovered pocket sundial from fifteenth century


Austria. This paper looks at how a single object can represent mobility and
movement across vast distances. However, this paper looks in more detail at
the object itself rather than fully discussing it in terms of movement.

Chapter Three, by Scott Joseph Allen, provides a contrast to the


other chapters in both this section and the volume as a whole. It presents
a cautionary tale regarding the use of material culture to indicate—and
thus trace the movement of—different cultural groups. In the context of
colonial South America, he establishes that Brazilian red clay pipes were
not, as previously thought, related to a particular social group; instead it
is more likely that they were widely distributed across the colony and
across all social groupings. The inclusion of this chapter provides a strong
counterpoint to the others by outlining the problems involved in detecting a
group’s movement from material culture.

The next six chapters are grouped together under the title of
‘people in motion’. The first two chapters in this section share the theme
of displacement due to war. The first (Chapter Six by Chieh-fu Jeff Cheng
and Ellen Hsieh) looks at Chinese colonies in Taiwan, while the second
(Chapter Seven by Mats Burström), examines those who left their homeland
of Estonia during the Second World War. Chapter Nine, by Sean Winter,
examines Australian penal colonies. Rather than considering isolated sites
he instead looks at the penal system as a network of movement, which
provides a framework to allow both similarities and differences to exist
between sites. Perhaps the biggest criticism of these three chapters is that the
theme of movement and mobility does not come across strongly: Chapter
Six in particular feels more like a gazetteer of the settlements rather than
a discussion of movement in archaeology. As such, they do not make a
strong contribution to the theoretical or methodological development of the
archaeology of mobility.

The remaining chapters in this section address the theme of


movement more closely. Both Chapters Eight and Ten look at some very
familiar themes in movement theory, such as liminality (Chapter Ten, Karen
Hutchins) and how movement can impact upon social ties (Chapter Eight,
Craig Cipolla). Chapter Eight also examines how movement can afford new
expressions of material culture by creating distance from traditions. Finally,
Chapter Eleven, by Magdalena Naum, looks at a little considered aspect of
movement—the desire to return—in the context of the colonisers of New
Sweden.

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The final section of the book comprises four chapters under


the theme of ‘movement through space’. As with the preceding section,
however, the theme of movement is not always central to the arguments
and approaches put forward in these studies. The first (Chapter Twelve,
John Cherry et al.), concentrates upon a particular location: the ruins of the
AIR music recording studios on Montserrat. The paper concentrates mostly
on the history of the site itself, but the movement of its former contents is
briefly discussed. In addition, there is a list of ‘suggested music’ to enhance
the reading of the text. Chapter Fourteen, by Christina Hodge, also focusses
more explicitly on place rather than movement in her examination of the
Harvard Indian College and the resulting interaction of cultures.

The theme of ‘movement through space’ is perhaps more explicit


in Chapters Thirteen and Fifteen. Travis Parno (Chapter Thirteen) looks
at the phenomenology of museum visits in his study of American historic
houses, where visitor movement can be seen to aid the understanding of
the attraction. This chapter would be particularly valuable to those with an
interest in museum and heritage studies, particularly researchers looking at
public engagement. Finally, Chapter Fifteen, by Alexander Keim, looks at
urban daily movement in nineteenth century Boston. This is the only paper
in the volume to explicitly examine the mechanics of movement, in this case
by foot, which is an important topic in the archaeology of movement.

The whole volume is well summarized in Shannon Dawdy’s


Afterword. Here she discusses each of the chapters and provides links
between them, suggesting that what this volume does is present papers on
an “archaeology of longing” (page 258). Overall, this seems an accurate
description of the collection as, in many cases, the type of movement under
discussion in the paper results in a sense of longing for home or the past. This
is manifest in the transportation of material culture from a home country
(Chapter Two) or nostalgia for lost places resulting from forced movement
or destruction (Chapters Seven and Twelve). Dawdy also draws attention to
the scale of the movement discussed, highlighting how it is not large-scale
movement, as often found in archaeology; instead it is at the intimate scale
of individual journeys.

This volume therefore presents the archaeology of personal


movement, in some cases of named individuals. This is very unfamiliar
territory to archaeologists who study the deeper past. Furthermore, most
of the papers included within the volume examine the idea of movement
and mobility from the perspective of displaced people, ranging from the
colonization of the New World, through to convict transportation and

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displacement resulting from war.

Consequently, it is possible to argue that these papers are examining


the results of movement, rather than the movement in itself (with the
exceptions of Chapters Four and Fifteen). This is a different approach from
most previous studies of movement and mobility in archaeology, which
have tended to look at evidence for the mechanics and routes of movement.
Another contrast to previous studies is that many of these papers seem to be
presenting an almost ‘there and back again’ view of movement and mobility,
with a desire to return home evident. This challenges the more prevalent
assumption that movement is generally positive, given the economic and
social benefits it often provides.

This volume is also a useful addition to the corpora of movement


studies in archaeology in that it extends the reach of this research to the
recent past. However, there are several themes which this book overlooks.
Though the introduction states that the volume covers the movement of
people, objects and ideas, there is little evidence that the movement of ideas
are examined. Furthermore, with the exception of Chapter Fifteen, the
actual mechanics of movement—such as transport technology or routes—
are not discussed, and neither are the social and ritual dimension of mobility
examined. Additionally, many of the papers would have been improved by
having more discussion and use of the archaeological record itself, rather
than relying on documentary evidence alone.

Finally, in terms of the editing of the volume, the section divisions


appear arbitrary rather than reflecting cohesive themes between papers.
However, overall it is a well-produced volume with a good number of
quality illustrations. It will serve the interests of historical archaeologists
well, though may not appeal to a wider audience due to the difficulty of
applying the approaches used in this volume to periods without supporting
documentary evidence. In conclusion, many of the criticisms of this volume
would be resolved with a simple change in title, perhaps using Dawdy’s
suggestion of an ‘Archaeology of Longing’, with movement and mobility
placed into a subtitle.

References

Urry, J. 2007. Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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