ABSTRACT
In this chapter, my aim is to explore the social aspects of agency, and in so doing to argue that we need to be flexible in our understanding of the constitution of agency in particular cultural contexts. The question of whether the widespread conception of agency in terms of knowledgable, reflexive actors is always an appropriate one, or whether there have in fact been different kinds of selfhood or subjectivity, has recently been raised by some archaeologists (Gero 2000; MacGregor 1994; cf. Meskell 1999: 25-26). Here, I would like to suggest ways forward with this problem, based particularly on a consideration of different scales of power and social identity. I will begin this argument by reviewing some of the problems with defining agency, and then move on to a substantive case study in which I will try to demonstrate that sensitivity to multiple scales of social interaction is one way of addressing these. I will also, in the conclusion of the chapter, suggest that variations in the way that humans engage with temporality and material culture are also critical to understanding how ‘the self’ might be constituted differentially in different cultural contexts, and argue that archaeologists are well placed to address these issues, which are clearly of much broader relevance across the social sciences.
