Matthew H. Johnson

Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation

Abstract The history of archaeological concern with the individual social actor is traced, and a divergence between emphasis of human agency in theory and ignorance in pratice is noted. Three studies are critiqued in this light: Shanks and Tilleys (1987a, Reconstructing archaeology , Cambridge University Press) study of contemporary beer can design in England and Sweden, Leones (1984, In Ideology, power and prehistory , pp. 25–35) interpretation of the William Paca Garden, and Hodders (1982b, In Symbolic and structural archaeology , pp. 162–177) analysis of the Dutch Neolithic. The reflexive relationship between social structure and human agency is then examined empirically with reference to the domestic architecture of sixteenth century Suffolk, England. Medieval houses are interpreted as expressing an ideology legitimating “feudal” social relationships. Changes in spatial organisation and architectural detail of the 1500s are linked, through specific houses and owners, with individuals and groups actively pursuing social goals and expressing varied sets of ideas through the form of their dwellings. The intended and unintended consequences of these changes are seen as leading in turn to a wider social and economic transformation, and ultimately to the “rise of capitalism.” Finally, some implications of the study for future work on this problem are suggested.

Housing culture: traditional architecture in an English landscape

An introduction to western Suffolk houses, tradition and social meaning open houses transitional houses closed houses the transformation of the technical system order and meaning in the closed household status, class and relations between houses a process of enclosure conclusion - old houses, modern meanings.

Word sense disambiguation with pictures

We introduce using images for word sense disambiguation, either alone, or in conjunction with traditional text based methods. The approach is based on a recently developed method for automatically annotating images by using a statistical model for the joint probability for image regions and words. The model itself is learned from a data base of images with associated text. To use the model for word sense disambiguation, we constrain the predicted words to be possible senses for the word under consideration. When word prediction is constrained to a narrow set of choices (such as possible senses), it can be quite reliable. We report on experiments using the resulting sense probabilities as is, as well as augmenting a state of the art text based word sense disambiguation algorithm. In order to evaluate our approach, we developed a new corpus, ImCor, which consists of a substantive portion of the Corel image data set associated with disambiguated text drawn from the SemCor corpus. Our experiments using this corpus suggest that visual information can be very useful in disambiguating word senses. It also illustrates that associated non-textual information such as image data can help ground language meaning.

On the nature of theoretical archaeology and archaeological theory

In this paper I want to make some general comments on the state of archaeological theory today. I argue that a full answer to the question ‘does archaeological theory exist?’ must be simultaneously ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Yes, there is, demonstrably, a discourse called archaeological theory, with concrete structures such as individuals and schools of thought more or less substantively engaged with it; no, in that the claims for a distinctive way of thinking about the world in theoretical terms specific to archaeology, to which most or even the largest group of archaeologists would willingly or knowingly subscribe, are over-stated. In particular there is a lack of correspondence between theoretical backgrounds and affiliations that are overtly cited by archaeologists, on the one hand, and, on the other, the deeper underlying assumptions and traditions that structure their work and condition its acceptance. These underlying traditions stretch from field habits to underlying paradigms or discourses. I will explore this latter point with reference to the manner in which agency theory and phenomenology have been developed in archaeology. My conclusion suggests some elements of a way forward for archaeological theory; it is striking that many of these elements have been addressed in recent issues of Archaeological dialogues.

Rethinking historical archaeology

Historical Archaeology demonstrates the potential of adopting a flexible, encompassing definition of historical archaeology which involves the study of all societies with documentary evidence. It encourages research that goes beyond the boundaries between prehistory and history. Ranging in subject matter from Roman Britain and Classical Greece, to colonial Africa, Brazil and the United States, the contributors present a much broader range of perspectives than is currently the trend.

Historical, archaeology, capitalism

In this paper I want to support the central thrust of this volume, namely the call for a historical archaeology of capitalism. Writing such an archaeology is a complex and difficult task, and I seek to explore some of the general problems raised by such a call as explored both in my own work and in the papers published here. My paper will concentrate its comments on several distinct, but clearly related, issues: space, time, context, material culture, and politics. Aspects of these issues have been raised before in the context of an archaeology of the modern world (Orser 1996), but I want to argue here that such concepts are not only central to an archaeology of capitalism, they are themselves central to the practice of archaeology in all areas and places, and as such can be considered the basic building blocks of archaeology as a whole. An archaeology of capitalism is, consequently, much more than an “offshoot” of more traditional archaeological concerns; it is situated at the core of the discipline of archaeology conceived in a holistic sense. I will discuss this relationship between historical and other archaeologies further in the conclusions.

English houses 1300-1800: vernacular architecture, social life

Johnson applies his popular and engaging style to The English House, investigating the past of the thousands of old structures we see across the UK. Focusing on historical and social aspects of the houses and the people who lived in them, this book brings to life how our homes changed over the centuries to reflect our priorities

Meanings of polite architecture in sixteenth-century England

This paper argues that the aristocracy and upper gentry in 16th-century England manipulated symbolic structures relating to the feudal past to lend ideological support to the Tudor social order. It does so by applying the concept of consumption to the building and use of “polite” architecture. Through the use of medieval features such as crenelation, the gatehouse, the moat, and decorative use of emblems and badges, the 16th-century house expressed and enforced its owner’s claims to be part of a long-established social order. At the same time, the changing arrangement and use of rooms behind this façade displayed a more complex pattern of change. These patterns are related to a series of case studies in which the owners’ uses of specific symbols can be related to their chosen strategy in maintaining and extending this position near the apex of Tudor society.

Improved outcomes in ex-smokers with COPD: a UK primary care observational cohort study

Smoking cessation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) reduces accelerated forced expiratory volume in 1 s decline, but impact on key health outcomes is less clear. We studied the relationship of smoking status to mortality and hospitalisation in a UK primary care COPD population. Using patient-anonymised routine data in the Hampshire Health Record Analytical Database, we identified a prevalent COPD cohort, categorising patients by smoking status (current, ex- or never-smokers). Three outcomes were measured over 3 years (2011–2013): all-cause mortality, respiratory-cause unplanned hospital admission and respiratory-cause emergency department attendance. Survival analysis using multivariable Cox regression after multiple imputation was used to estimate hazard ratios for each outcome by smoking status, adjusting for measured confounders (including age, lung function, socioeconomic deprivation, inhaled medication and comorbidities). We identified 16 479 patients with COPD, mean±sd age 70.1±11.1 years. Smoking status was known in 91.3%: 35.1% active smokers, 54.3% ex-smokers, 1.9% never-smokers. Active smokers predominated among younger patients. Compared with active smokers (n=5787), ex-smokers (n=8941) had significantly reduced risk of death, hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) 0.78 (0.70–0.87), hospitalisation, 0.82 (0.74–0.89) and emergency department attendance, 0.78 (0.70–0.88). After adjusting for confounders, ex-smokers had significantly better outcomes, emphasising the importance of effective smoking cessation support, regardless of age or lung function. Many COPD patients smoke: better outcomes in ex-smokers suggest many deaths and admissions avoidable if smokers quit http://ow.ly/l85u30aizmK

Implementing a multi-hat PDA

We describe our work in progress aimed at implementing a multi-hat PDA. Our current prototype is based on SELinux and KDE and accepts a proximity token, in the form of a Bluetooth cellphone, as an alternative authentication method.We analyse in detail the suitability of several alternatives for the graphical environment and underlying OS and we discuss a variety of interesting implementation issues that arose during development.