Publication details for Professor Veronica Strang

Strang, V. (2014). Fluid consistencies. Material relationality in human engagements with water. Archaeological Dialogues 21(02): 133-150.

• Publication type: Journal Article
• ISSN/ISBN: 1380-2038, 1478-2294
• DOI: 10.1017/S1380203814000130
• Keywords: Human–environmental relations, Materiality, Agency, Bioethics.
• Further publication details on publisher web site
• Durham Research Online (DRO) - may include full text

Author(s) from Durham

• Professor Veronica Strang

Abstract

Material things are not just passive recipients of human categories, meanings and values, nor mere subjects of human agency. Their particular characteristics and behaviours are formative of human–non-human relations. The common material properties of things, and the shared cognitive and phenomenological processes through which people interact with them, generate recurrent ideas and patterns of engagement in diverse cultural and historical contexts. Despite growing instrumentalism in human ‘management’ of the material world, and the emergence of new relational forms, these patterns persist.