ABSTRACT
There is little in-depth discussion in archaeology of the notions of free-will, fatalism, determinism, and freedom. Most of these notions originate from metaphysics and pertain to whether reality is pre-determined or not. Central to these metaphysical notions is the idea that regardless of how reality manifests, the human is metaphysically distinct from the rest of reality because humans have the capacity or power to choose otherwise. This chapter argues that in the discipline of archaeology, metaphysical notions of free-will and determinism are ultimately irrelevant. Furthermore, this chapter will also argue that our archaeological understanding of past freedom is not dependent of whether humans have free-will or not.
This chapter will also engage with the idea that humans are universally free yet constrained by social, economic, and biological forces, an idea that enjoys immense popularity in archaeology. Yet, despite its popularity, the idea of constrained humans is deleterious to our understanding of past and present archaeological phenomena. Following Marshall Sahlins’ work on stone age economics and more recent work in prehistoric demographics, this chapter argues that past peoples were not in fact constrained by their circumstances.
