Hypanthropos
On Apprehending and Approaching That Which is in Excess of Monstrosity, with Special Consideration given to the Photography of Edward Burtynsky
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33819Keywords:
Anthropocene, Edward Burtynsky, hypanthropic things, photographic art, Three Gorges DamAbstract
Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the provisional label of the “Anthropocene”, this article trains its lens on some of the more-than-monstrous things that have revealed themselves in our calamitous times. It raises questions about how archaeologists are to apprehend and approach objects that differ in scale, speed, makeup, and efficacy from anything our field has ever dealt with. But rather than honing its analytical edge exclusively with the latest science, it also ventures in another direction to explore some of the powers of art by considering the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynksy. Finally, it makes a few closing remarks on the role of our profession in this new archaeological era.References
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Clarke, B. 2014. “‘The Anthropocene,’ or, Gaia Shrugs.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology. 1 (1): 101–104. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.101
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González-Ruibal, A. 2008. “Time to Destroy: An Archaeology of Supermodernity”. Current Anthropology 49 (2): 247–279. https://doi.org/10.1086/526099
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Hodder, I. 2014. “The Entanglements of Humans and Things: A Long-Term View.” New Literary History 45 (1): 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2014.0005
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Pétursdóttir, Þ. and B. Olsen. 2014. “Imaging Modern Decay: The Aesthetics of Ruin Photography.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 7–56. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.7
Redman, C. L. 1999. Human Impact on Ancient Environments. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Serres, M. 2014. Times of Crisis: What the Financial Crisis Revealed and How to Reinvent our Lives and Future. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Sloterdijk, P. 2013. In the World Interior of Capital. Towards a Philosophical Theory of Globalization. Cambridge: Polity.
____. 2014. “The Anthropocene: A Process-State on the Edge of Geohistory?” In Textures of the Anthropocene: Grain| Vapor| Ray, Volume 3, edited by K. Klingan, A. Sepahvand, C. Rosol and B. M. Scherer, 257–271. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
____. 2016. Spheres, Volume 3: Foams, Plural Spherology. South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e).
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Steffen, W., W. Broadgate, L. Deutsch, O. Gaffney and C. Ludwig. 2015. “The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration.” The Anthropocene Review 2 (1): 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019614564785
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Torosian, M. and E. Burtynsky. 2005. “The Essential Element: An Interview with Edward Burtynsky.” In Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky, edited by L. Pauli, 46–55. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press.
van der Leeuw, S. E. 1998. The Archaeomedes Project: Understanding the Natural and Anthropogenic Causes of Land Degradation and Desertification in the Mediterranean Basin. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
____. and C. L. Redman. 2002. “Placing Archaeology at the Center of Socio-Natural Studies.” American Antiquity 67 (4): 597–605. https://doi.org/10.2307/1593793
Waters, C. N., J. Zalasiewicz, C. Summerhayes, A. D. Barnosky, C. Poirier, A. Ga?uszka, A. Cearreta, M. Edgeworth, E. C. Ellis, M. Ellis and C. Jeandel. 2016. “The Anthropocene is Functionally and Stratigraphically Distinct from the Holocene.” Science 351 (6269): 2622. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad2622
Witmore, C. 2014. “Archaeology, the Anthropocene, and the Hypanthropocene.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 128–132. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.128
____. 2018. “The End of the ‘Neolithic’? At the Emergence of the Anthropocene.” In Multispecies Archaeology, edited by S. Pilaar Birch, 26–46. London: Routledge.
Xinhua. 2010. “Water Level at Three Gorges Project Raised to Full Capacity.” Xinhua website, 26 October. Online: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-10/26/c_13575583.htm
Žižek, S. 2015. “Ecology against Mother Nature: Slavoj Žižek on Molecular Red.” Verso Books Blog, 26 May. Online: http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2007-ecology-against-mother-nature-slavoj-zizek-on-molecular-red
Burtynsky, E. with J. Baichwal and N. De Pencier. 2018. Anthropocene. Göttingen: Steidl.
Burtynsky, E., M. Mitchell, W. E. Rees, P. Roth and M. Schubert. 2009. Burtynsky: Oil. Göttingen: Steidl.
Chakrabarty, D. 2009. “The Climate of History: Four Theses.” Critical Inquiry 35 (2): 197–222. https://doi.org/10.1086/596640
Chao, B. F. 2006. “Earth’s Oblateness and its Temporal Variations.” Comptes Rendus Geoscience, 338 (14): 1123–1129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crte.2006.09.014
Chen, H., Y. Wu, X. Yuan, Y. Gao, N. Wu and D. Zhu, 2009. “Methane Emissions from Newly Created Marshes in the Drawdown Area of Three Gorges Reservoir.” Journal of Geophyscical Research: Atmospheres 114 (D18). https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012410
Clarke, B. 2014. “‘The Anthropocene,’ or, Gaia Shrugs.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology. 1 (1): 101–104. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.101
Crossland, Z. 2014. “Anthropocene: Locating Agency, Imagining the Future.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology. 1 (1): 123–128. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.123
Erlandson, J. M. and T. J. Braje. 2013. “Archaeology and the Anthropocene.” Anthropocene 4: 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2014.05.003
Fisher, C. T., J. B. Hill and G. M. Feinman. 2009. The Archaeology of Environmental Change: Socionatural Legacies of Degradation and Resilience. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
González-Ruibal, A. 2008. “Time to Destroy: An Archaeology of Supermodernity”. Current Anthropology 49 (2): 247–279. https://doi.org/10.1086/526099
Harman, G. 2016. “On Behalf of Form.” In Elements of Architecture: Assembling Archaeology, Atmosphere and the Performance of Building Space, edited by M. Bille and T. F. Sorensen, 30–46. London: Routledge.
Hartley, D. 2015. “Against the Anthropocene.” Salvage 1 (1). Online: http://salvage.zone/in-print/against-the-anthropocene/
Hodder, I. 2014. “The Entanglements of Humans and Things: A Long-Term View.” New Literary History 45 (1): 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2014.0005
Hvistendahl, M. 2008. “China’s Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe?” Scientific American, 25 March. Online: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinas-three-gorges-dam-disaster/
JPL. 2005. “NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth.” NASA website, 10 January. Online: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=716
Kirch, P. V. 2005. “Archaeology and Global Change: The Holocene Record.” Annual Review of Environment and Resources 30 (1): 409–440. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.29.102403.140700
Kunzig, R. 2009. “Scraping Bottom.” National Geographic 215 (3): 34–59.
Latour, B. 2015. Face à Gaïa: huit conférences sur le nouveau régime climatique. Paris: La Découverte.
Latour, B. 2017. “Anthropology at the Time of the Anthropocene: A Personal View of What is to be Studied.” In The Anthropology of Sustainability: Beyond Development and Progress, edited by M. Brightman and J. Lewis, 35–49. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56636-2_2
Macfarlane, R. 2016. “Generation Anthropocene: How Humans have Altered the Planet Forever.” The Guardian, 1 April. Online: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/01/generation-anthropocene-altered-planet-for-ever
Miéville, C. 2015. “The Limits of Utopia.” Salvage 1 (1). Online: http://salvage.zone/in-print/the-limits-of-utopia/
Moore, J. W., ed. 2016. Anthropocene or Capitalocene? Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism. Oakland, CA: PM Press.
Morgenstern, N. 2001. “Geotechnics and Mine Waste Management – Update”. In Seminar on Safe Tailings Dam Constructions, Gällivare, September 20-21, 2001: Technical Papers, 54–67. No location: Swedish Mining Association, Naturvårdsverket [Swedish Environmental Protection Agency] and the European Commission. Online: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/mining/pdf/mining_dams_seminar.pdf
Morton, T. 2013. Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Nietzsche, F. 1997. Untimely Meditations. Translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511812101
Olsen, B., M. Shanks, T. Webmoor and C. Witmore 2012. Archaeology the Discipline of Things. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520274167.001.0001
Pétursdóttir, Þ. and B. Olsen. 2014. “Imaging Modern Decay: The Aesthetics of Ruin Photography.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 7–56. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.7
Redman, C. L. 1999. Human Impact on Ancient Environments. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.
Serres, M. 2014. Times of Crisis: What the Financial Crisis Revealed and How to Reinvent our Lives and Future. New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Sloterdijk, P. 2013. In the World Interior of Capital. Towards a Philosophical Theory of Globalization. Cambridge: Polity.
____. 2014. “The Anthropocene: A Process-State on the Edge of Geohistory?” In Textures of the Anthropocene: Grain| Vapor| Ray, Volume 3, edited by K. Klingan, A. Sepahvand, C. Rosol and B. M. Scherer, 257–271. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
____. 2016. Spheres, Volume 3: Foams, Plural Spherology. South Pasadena, CA: Semiotext(e).
Smith, B. D. and M. A. Zeder 2013. “The Onset of the Anthropocene.” Anthropocene 4: 8–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2013.05.001
Steffen, W., W. Broadgate, L. Deutsch, O. Gaffney and C. Ludwig. 2015. “The Trajectory of the Anthropocene: The Great Acceleration.” The Anthropocene Review 2 (1): 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019614564785
Stengers, I. 2015. In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism. Translated by A. Goffey. Arbor, MI: Open Humanities Press. Online: http://openhumanitiespress.org/books/download/Stengers_2015_In-Catastrophic-Times.pdf
Torosian, M. and E. Burtynsky. 2005. “The Essential Element: An Interview with Edward Burtynsky.” In Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky, edited by L. Pauli, 46–55. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press.
van der Leeuw, S. E. 1998. The Archaeomedes Project: Understanding the Natural and Anthropogenic Causes of Land Degradation and Desertification in the Mediterranean Basin. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
____. and C. L. Redman. 2002. “Placing Archaeology at the Center of Socio-Natural Studies.” American Antiquity 67 (4): 597–605. https://doi.org/10.2307/1593793
Waters, C. N., J. Zalasiewicz, C. Summerhayes, A. D. Barnosky, C. Poirier, A. Ga?uszka, A. Cearreta, M. Edgeworth, E. C. Ellis, M. Ellis and C. Jeandel. 2016. “The Anthropocene is Functionally and Stratigraphically Distinct from the Holocene.” Science 351 (6269): 2622. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad2622
Witmore, C. 2014. “Archaeology, the Anthropocene, and the Hypanthropocene.” Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1 (1): 128–132. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v1i1.128
____. 2018. “The End of the ‘Neolithic’? At the Emergence of the Anthropocene.” In Multispecies Archaeology, edited by S. Pilaar Birch, 26–46. London: Routledge.
Xinhua. 2010. “Water Level at Three Gorges Project Raised to Full Capacity.” Xinhua website, 26 October. Online: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-10/26/c_13575583.htm
Žižek, S. 2015. “Ecology against Mother Nature: Slavoj Žižek on Molecular Red.” Verso Books Blog, 26 May. Online: http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2007-ecology-against-mother-nature-slavoj-zizek-on-molecular-red
Published
2019-06-26
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Witmore, C. (2019). Hypanthropos: On Apprehending and Approaching That Which is in Excess of Monstrosity, with Special Consideration given to the Photography of Edward Burtynsky. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 6(1), 136-153. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.33819
