Forskare
Johan Normark
PhD, researcher
Presentation
Johan Normark’s undergraduate education, apart from archaeology, included social anthropology, classical archaeology, history of science, astronomy and earth science. Since 1997 he has worked at several sites in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Argentina. His doctoral research (2002-2006) focused on causeways (sacbeob) at two large sites in the Cochuah region, in the northern Maya lowlands in Mexico. This research also included the initial development of a polyagentive or posthumanocentric archaeology, largely inspired by the writings of three interrelated philosophers; Bergson, Deleuze and DeLanda. He received his PhD in 2006 at Göteborg University. Normark has also taught in various courses at Göteborg University and has been an external consultant for the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm. Currently he is working with a two-year postdoctoral research project financed by the Swedish Research Council (2008-2010). It focuses on caves and climate changes in the Cochuah region in Mexico.
Normark’s earlier research in the Maya area has included past and present identities (gender and ethnicity), warfare, trade, architecture and settlement archaeology. He also has a strong interest in archaeological theory and has focused on materiality, social archaeology, the concept of time and a critique of the archaeological culture concept. His main goal is to create an archaeology that does not set the human in the centre of investigation. There are obviously connections to Actor-Network-Theory and posthumanism. A return to a realist and materialist ontology that reaches beyond both naïve realism and social constructionism is therefore crucial to Normark’s agenda. This is something he strives to accomplish in his ongoing cave-climate project in Mexico:
Holy Places, Holey Spaces and the Emergent Wholes: Caves and Climate Change in the Maya Lowlands
The so-called “Maya collapse” in southern Mexico, during the Terminal Classic period (A.D. 800-1100), has been given many interpretations. Some of the recent ones emphasize ecological and climate related causes and the “Maya collapse” has been seen as a warning example of how fragile both environment and society are. In light of the contemporary climate debate it is important to show that from a historical/ archaeological context this catastrophism is highly problematic. Although there is evidence that drier periods have occurred, the palaeoclimatic models have flaws and one of them is the lack of socio-political and religious perspectives of past societies. Since the effects of climate changes on society in the Maya area are based on modern and Colonial analogies, it must be noted that the Europeans had a serious impact on the Maya area. This research shall focus on a little known border area of European control (1544-1821). From the indigenous perspective, this border appears to have been fluid, but less so for the Spaniards that were tied to their agricultural strategies they had brought over from Europe. Caves and other karstic features were the crucial nodes in these processes.
Mayanist cave studies are today directed by cosmological models. However, cosmology belongs to a discursive order and as such it does not penetrate the non-linguistic and non-representational understanding of the world. Following ideas developed by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the world expresses itself in an anorganic way, independently of an interpreting human agent. The purpose of this project is to show how the caves and sinkholes of the Cochuah region in southern Mexico have become crucial components in various machinic assemblages through 2600 years. In Deleuze’s ontology, a machine is a whole that has emerged from heterogeneous parts. An assemblage is both functional and expressive, these are not dialectical opposites.
The cave sites have not formed stable spaces through time. At certain times they have mainly been used by a non-residential population (smooth spaces) and at other times people lived right next to the caves (striated spaces). The only sites with a more continuous settlement are the ones with permanent water sources (cenotes), like Ichmul. These settlement changes coincide with climate changes detected at nearby Lake Chichancanab. People lived near the caves during droughts and away from the caves during wetter periods. The Spanish conquest drastically changed this fluctuating pattern in the region. During Colonial period droughts the cave sites were not settled as in Prehispanic times. This has partly to do with the strong relationship between caves and the Maya’s cosmologies and identities. The church attempted to break this relationship. The caves turned into places for resistance against the striating force of the Spanish state and the church, they became holey spaces. During the Caste War the caves once again became striated spaces for the talking cross.
More information on Normark and his wider posthumanocentric agenda can be found on this website: http://posthumanocentric.webs.com/
This agenda includes three other projects/books in preparation:
Posthumanocentric Archaeology: Neo-Realist Studies of Materialities
Face Off! A Posthumanocentric Study of the Face
The Meshing of Temporalities in Material Assemblages
Publications
Books
2006 The Roads In-Between: Causeways and Polyagentive Networks at Ichmul and Yo’okop, Cochuah Region, Mexico. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2004 Caught Somewhere in Time: Polyagentive Archaeology in the Maya Lowlands. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2000 Genderized Time and Space in Late Classic Maya Calendars. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
Articles
In press A posthumanocentric nomadology of the causeways of the Cochuah region. 2500 Years of Occupation in the Cochuah Region. J. M. Shaw, ed. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
In press Homemaking and emergent assemblages in the Cochuah region, Mexico Making and Unmaking Homes: Domestic Practice and Materiality. P. Cornell and T. Hjørungdal, eds.
In press The archaeological event horizon: temporal considerations to the use of practice and agency theories in archaeology. Time and Chronology. P. Cornell and J. Varberg, eds.
In press Den människocentrerade utfyllnadsarkeologin vid vägs ände. In Situ
In review Has there ever been a Maya culture? Arborescent orders, rhizomatic connections and concrete assemblages.
In review Involutions of materiality: Operationalizing a neo-materialist perspective through the causeways at Ichmul and Yo’okop
2008a The triadic causeways of Ichmul: virtual highways becoming actual roads. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18(2): 215-237.
2008b Caves, water sources and climate change in the Cochuah region. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey's 2008 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2008c San Manuel. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey's 2008 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2008d Gruta del Aluxes. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey's 2008 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2008e Rancho Benito Juarez. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey's 2008 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2007a Lethal encounters: warfare and virtual ideologies in the Maya area. Encounters/Materialities/ Confrontations: Archaeologies of Social Space and Interaction. P. Cornell. and F. Fahlander, eds. 165-197. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
2007b Apocalypto – Mel Gibsons maya kontra arkeologernas maya. Arkeologen 12 (1):16-21.
2007c ”Mayakollapsen” - klimatförändringar i ljuset av en kolonial ”total makeover”. Klimat: Humanistdag-boken 20. 97-103. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2006a Ethnicity and the shared quasi-objects: issues of becoming relating to two open-fronted structures at Nohcacab, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Maya Ethnicity: The Construction of Ethnic Identity from the Preclassic to Modern Times. F. Sachse, ed. 61-81. Markt Schwaben: Verlag Anton Saurwein.
2006b Koloniala och postkoloniala bilder av ”mayakulturen”. Arkeologen 11 (1-2):46-50.
2006c Mayas historia. Spelet om maya: en utställning om arkeologiska berättelser, T. Frambäck, ed. 9-11. Stockholm: Statens historiska museum.
2006d Bilder av “mayakulturen” inom mayarörelsen, populärvetenskapen och arkeologin. Dom- och vi: Humanistdag-boken 19. 213-218. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2005a Vägnätet i Ichmul, Cochuah regionen, Mexiko: Resultat från 2005 års säsong. Arkeologen 10 (3-4):8-13.
2005b Arkeologins undre värld: de mexikanska grottornas underliggande betydelser. Under ytan: Humanistdagboken 18. 243-250. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2005c (with Alberto Flores Colin) The central portion of Ichmul. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 7-24. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2005d (with Alberto Flores Colin) The San Andres terminus area. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 45-52. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2005e (with Alberto Flores Colin) The San Cristobal terminus area. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 61-64. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2005f (with Alberto Flores Colin) The San Juan terminus area. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 71-74. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2005g (with Alberto Flores Colin) The San Pedro (Chan Ichmul) terminus area. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 79-81. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2005h (with Alberto Flores Colin) Discussion of the Ichmul sacbe network. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2005 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 82-96. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2004a Sakbihs and polyagency: the architectural causes of human behaviour in the Cochuah region, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Current Swedish Archaeology 12:141-168.
2004b Discontinuous Maya identities: culture and ethnicity in Mayanist discourse. Material Culture and Other Things: Post-disciplinary Studies in the 21st Century. F. Fahlander and T. Oestigaard, ed. 109-160. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2004c (with Alberto Flores Colin) Ichmul and its surroundings. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2004 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 55-71. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2004d (with Alberto Flores Colin) All roads lead to Ichmul: sacbeob in the Cochuah region. Final Report of the Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2004 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 72-94. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2003a Mayas vita vägar: förbindelser eller gränser? Gränser: Humanistdag-boken 16. 287-293. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2003b Operation 1 at Xquerol. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2003 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 18-21. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2003c The sacbe between Xquerol and Ichmul in the greater Cochuah regional context. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2003 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 22-28. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2003d Small Postclassic shrines at Nohcacab. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2003 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 34-38. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2003e Caves and settlement in the ejido of Sacalaca. Final Report of Cochuah Regional Archaeological Survey’s 2003 Field Season. J.M. Shaw, ed. 70-91. Eureka: College of the Redwoods.
2002 Kan forntiden tjäna framtiden? Vattenberg och jungfruvatten inom mayaarkeologin. Humaniora – en akademisk fråga?: Humanistdag-boken 15. 201-208. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
2001 (with Anabel Ford, Rudy Larios, Paulino Morales and Carmen Ramos) Influence of Ancient Settlement in the Contemporary Maya Forest: Investigating Land Use at El Pilar. Santa Barbara: Mesoamerican Research Center, University of California.
2000a “Baktuniarism” behind radical changes in pre-Columbian Maya societies. Etnografiska museet i Göteborg: Årstryck 1995-1998. S.E. Isacsson, ed. 97-109. Göteborg: Etnografiska museet i Göteborg.
2000b Settlement survey and the archaeological inventory: El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna. Assessing the Situation at El Pilar: Chronology, Survey, Conservation and Management. Planning for the 21st Century. A. Ford and C. Wernecke, eds. Santa Barbara: Mesoamerican Research Center. University of California.
1997 (with Karin Backensved, Henrik Christiansson, and Cecilia Johansson) Stenbalt och lite bronsgrunkor. Arkeologi över gränser: möten mellan lettisk och svensk arkeologi. Ola W. Jensen, Håkan Karlsson and Armands Vijups eds. 77-88. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
1996 (with Karin Backensved, Henrik Christiansson, and Cecilia Johansson) Stenbalt och lite bronsgrunkor. En annorlunda arkeologisk kontext: upplevelser från en exkursion till Lettland 2-8/10-1995. O.W. Jensen and H. Karlsson, eds. 39-47. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
Redaktör: Christina Larsson
Källa: Arkeologi
Uppdaterad: 2008-08-25