Undoing Things explores all the ways in which things become undone, be they objects, bodies, places, or worlds.
Although archaeologists have long attended to the productive dimensions of materiality and material culture as a coherent phenomenon-making objects, building things, constructing identities-the discourse around undoing is more fragmented. Topics such as ruination, death, decay, demolition, and collapse are usually examined separately. Undoing Things asks what connections or continuities can be discerned in a diverse range of practices, both intentional and taphonomic, both destructive and healing. Is there a creative component to undoing ? How visible are different processes of undoing? How is time implicated? Is undoing reversible? Who has the power to undo and when is undoing empowering? What does it take to undo knowledge? These and other questions are examined through archaeological studies ranging from classical Maya and colonial Caribb
