ABSTRACT
This chapter explores if and how nonhumans have agency and biographies. It examines the work of Alfred Gell in more detail, particularly his notions of distributed personhood and his two types of agency. The chapter then explores the work of other anthropologists like Arjun Appadurai and Igor Kopytoff, both of whom inspired archaeologists to ask questions on the 'biographies' and 'life' histories of objects. It expresses that thinking about object's agency and their biographies has been a popular way of trying to bridge the dualism between people and things or humans and nonhumans. Archaeologist Rodney Harrison provides a fascinating application of Gell's ideas to an archaeological and anthropological problem concerning Australian Aboriginal heritage. His discussion focuses specifically on one type of artefact: Kimberley projectile points. These bifacial points were made from a variety of different raw materials, including stone, glass and even ceramic.
