Session: #452

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
The archaeology of material culture, bodies and landscapes
Session format:
Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Title & Content

Title:
The Intersections of Memory and Rock Art: Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach
Content:
Memory has prompted a wide arrange of research issues related to the human mind and behavior. Archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, psychology and neuroscience have importantly contributed to address this vast concept. Memory here refers to people’s capacity to remember and pass on knowledge. Memorisation techniques have been researched in Oceania, Africa and the Americas, finding that material culture along with intangible culture such as words/song, dance and music, sensorial experiences and emotions, actively assist in the creation of memory and specific narratives of identity. Rock art as a mnemonic device has been suggested in European archaeology since the early 2000s, particularly in Scotland. The lack of direct information about the social practices related to prehistoric rock art in Europe, however, has been overcome by the critical use of ethnography from contemporary communities around the world.

This session aims to further contribute to the study of rock art and its role in memorization processes, social memory and passing of knowledge. It also aims bringing together thought-provoking archaeological work that discusses methodological and theoretical approaches towards the study of the relation between rock art and memory through perspectives such as landscape, gender and material culture. Because of the complexity of the multidisciplinary entanglement required to address the aforementioned relationship, we encourage colleagues from around the world and from cognate disciplines to join us in order to discuss how their approaches and findings can argue for a better archaeological approach to the study of the intersections of rock art and memory.
Keywords:
memory, rock art, knowledge transmission
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
yes
Session associated with SAfA:
yes

Organisers

Main organiser:
Leslie Zubieta Calvert (Spain) 1,2,3
Co-organisers:
Catherine Cretin (France) 4,5
Lara Bacelar Alves (Portugal) 6
Affiliations:
1. Marie Curie Fellow, Universitat de Barcelona
2. Honorary Research Fellow, Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
3. Honorary Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences, Archaeology and Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western Australia
4. Conservateur du Patrimoine, Musée National de Préhistoire, Ministère de la Culture (Curator of the National Museum for Prehistory, French Ministery of Culture)
5. Research Fellow, UMR 5199 - PACEA, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux
6. FCT Pos-doc Fellow, Centre of studies in Archaeology, Arts and Heritage Science (CEAACP), University of Coimbra