Marcia-Anne Dobres

Marcia-Anne Dobres was an American archaeologist whose research focused primarily on the confluence of gender, agency, and technology. She was a professor at the University of Southern Maine.[1][2] She died of thyroid cancer on May 14, 2021.[3]

Marcia-Anne Dobres
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Southern Maine

Education

Dobres received her B.A. Summa cum Laude from New York University in 1986 and her M.A. from Binghamton University in 1988, both in Anthropology.[1] In 1995, Dobres graduated with her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley.[1] Her Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Margaret W. Conkey.

Research

Technology and social agency

Dobres' body of work examines the association between technology and social agency. Instead of focusing primarily on the materiality of technology, Dobres expounds the value of analyzing cultures through the lens of technological production. Dobres suggests that technology is inextricably linked to cultural practices, as the production of technology is shaped by social processes and is an avenue through which culture is expressed.[4]

Dobres explores these concepts in her book Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology.[5][6] This publication focuses on how the study of technology and social agency can be used to better understand how social constructs control and have controlled production of materials through the centuries.[7] Much of her other work contains research around similar topics such as gender, prehistoric technology and art, and societal impacts on such things.[8]

Selected bibliography
  • Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology, 2000.[9][10][11]
  • The Phenomenal Promise of Chaîne Opératoire: Mindfully Engaged Bodies and the Manufacture of Personhood in a Regional Perspective, 2010.[1]
  • Agency in Archaeology (editor), 2000.[12]
  • The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, Politics, and World Views, 1999.[13][14]

References
  1. "Dr. Marcia-Anne Dobres - Department of Anthropology - University of Maine". Department of Anthropology. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
  2. "Remembering Marcia-Anne Dobres | Geography-Anthropology | University of Southern Maine". usm.maine.edu. Archived from the original on 11 June 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  3. "Remembering Marcia-Anne Dobres | Geography-Anthropology | University of Southern Maine". usm.maine.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-11-24. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  4. Dobres, Anne (1994). "Social Agency and the Dynamics of Prehistoric Technology". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 3 (1): 211–58. doi:10.1007/BF02231876. JSTOR 20177312. S2CID 143749717.
  5. Dobres, Marcia-Anne (2000). Technology and Social Agency: Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology. Blackwell. ISBN 978-1577181231.
  6. Ahearn, Laura (October 2001). "Language and Agency". Annual Review of Anthropology. 30: 109–137. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.30.1.109.
  7. Hicks, Dan (2010). The Material Cultural Turn: Event and Effect. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 25–98.
  8. Dobres, Marcia-Anne (28 April 2009). "Archaeologies of Technology". Cambridge Journal of Economics. 34 (1): 103–114. doi:10.1093/cje/bep014.
  9. Sillar, Bill (2002). "Marcia-Anne Dobres. Technology and social agency: outlining a practice framework for archaeology. xiii+300 pages, 25 figures. 2000. Oxford & Malden (MA): Blackwell; 1-57718-123-9 hardback £55 & $70.95, 1-57718-124-7 paperback £17.99 & $33.95". Antiquity. 76 (292): 593–594. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00090852. ISSN 0003-598X. S2CID 162880614.
  10. Wright, Rita P. (2004). "Review of Technology and Social Agency". Technology and Culture. 45 (1): 231–232. doi:10.1353/tech.2004.0051. ISSN 0040-165X. JSTOR 40060626. S2CID 111339926.
  11. Stockl, Andrea (2000). "Review of Technology and Social Agency. Outlining a Practice Framework for Archaeology". Cambridge Anthropology. 22 (1): 78–80. ISSN 0305-7674. JSTOR 23820355.
  12. Mullins, Paul R. (2001). "Technology and Social Agency. Marcia-Anne Dobres. 2000. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, UK. xii + 300 pp. $62.95 (cloth), ISBN 1-57718-123-9; $29.95 (paper), ISBN 1-57718-124-7.Agency in Archaeology. Marcia-Anne Dobres and John Robb, editors. 2000. Routledge, NY. xiii + 270 pp. $32.99 (paper), ISBN 0-415-20761-4". American Antiquity. 66 (4): 755–756. doi:10.2307/2694198. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 2694198.
  13. Miller, Heather M.-L. (2000). "The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, Politics, and World Views. Marcia-Anne Dobres and Christopher R. Hoffman, editors. 1999. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xvi +240 pp., 29 figures, 1 table, references cited, index. $45.00 (cloth), ISBN 1- 56098-909-2". American Antiquity. 65 (1): 201–202. doi:10.2307/2694820. ISSN 0002-7316. JSTOR 2694820. S2CID 158016747.
  14. Field, Gregory (2001). "Review of The Social Dynamics of Technology: Practice, Politics, and World Views". Technology and Culture. 42 (2): 336–338. doi:10.1353/tech.2001.0059. ISSN 0040-165X. JSTOR 25147704. S2CID 110114275.
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