Abstract
The act of painting a design is a form of agency, and the overall style of that design in part can be conceptualized as a kind of structure. This perspective is used as a basis for analyzing chronological changes in designs on Mimbres Black-on-white pottery (ca. AD 750-1150) from Southwest New Mexico. Specific focus is on a methodology that can be used to detect innovations, that is, the introduction of novel designs that are incorporated into the design corpus and thus transform the structure. The conceptualization of a particular tradition (in this instance, pottery painting) as a form of structure analogous to general structure in Giddens' sense thus provides important insights into the recursive relationship between agency and structure.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 313-334 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2005 |
Keywords
- Agency
- Innovation
- Mimbres
- Pottery
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Archaeology
- Archaeology