ABSTRACT
The problem of agency is, in many respects, the problem of the human condition. It concerns the nature of individual freedom in the face of social constraints, the role of socialisation in the forming of ‘persons’, and the place of particular ways of doing things in the reproduction of cultures. In short, it is about the relationships between an individual human organism and everyone and everything else that surrounds it. It is no surprise, then, that the literature on the subject across the human sciences is vast – and expanding. Within this context, the present volume represents the continuing engagement of archaeologists with these issues, insofar as they are essential considerations in understanding people in the past and their ways of life, or ‘life-worlds’ (Schutz and Luckmann 1973: 3). As such, it is also indicative of the widening commitment of practitioners in the discipline to addressing the diversity of human life – past and present – at a profound level.
