Archaeologies of Attachment

Dr. Sanna Lipkin is University Research Fellow at the University of Oulu and Adjunct Professor in textile archaeology at the University of Turku. In her recent Academy of Finland funded projects (2016-2023) she has specialised in the archaeology of emotional attachment, childhood, funerary archaeology, and the study of mummified remains.

Dr. Taryn Bell is a researcher at the University of York. Her doctoral research, funded by the White Rose College of Arts and Humanities, focused on emotional attachments to objects, with a focus on the Upper Palaeolithic. She is interested in how attachment theory can help archaeologists to understand both social and emotional life in the past.

Dr. Tiina Väre is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her main fields of specialty are related to osteology, paleopathology, mummy studies, historical burial culture, and stable isotopes. Her research on past breastfeeding practices in Finland utilising archaeological skeletal remains and stable isotope analyses was funded by the Academy of Finland (2020-2023) and conducted at the University of Oulu.

Part I. Introduction.- Chapter 1. Introduction: Archaeologies of Emotion, Attachment, and Social Bonds (Bell et al).- Chapter 2. Archaeologies of Attachment. Understanding Social Relationships, Material Culture, Religion, and Place (Bell).- Part II. Social Bonds.- Chapter 3. Early Modern Breastfeeding Problem in Sweden. Failures to Securely Attach? (Väre).- Chapter 4. Fragile and Resilient: Impact of Childhood Emotional Bonds and Attachment on Coping Mechanisms in Eighteenth to Nineteenth-century Finland (Lipkin).- Chapter 5. Caring, Compassion and Clemency within the Nineteenth-century Foster Family of Clementeoffs. A case of Fictive Kinship (Tuovinen).- Chapter 6. Phenomenological Approaches to Prehistoric Attachments. The Evidence from Prehistoric, Complete, Animal Burials of the Eastern Carpathian Basin (Daróczi).- Part III: Emotionally Important Objects And Places.- Chapter 7. Letting Go of Attachment Objects. Insights from the 'Problematic Stuff' of Later Prehistoric Britain and Beyond (Büster).- Chapter 8. Objects of Memory, Attachment, and Childhood. A Case from Roman Piedmont (Northwestern Italy) (Quercia).- Chapter 9. Photography's Post-Mortem. Examining Emotion and Attachment through Family Pictures (Matila).- Part IV: Interdisciplinary Insights To Attachment-Based Archaeology.- Chapter 10. Conclusion. Towards Mentalising Archaeology: Attachment Bonds and Loneliness (Lipkin et al).- Chapter 11. Commentary. The Application of Attachment Theory for a more Emotionally and Socially Informed Archaeology (Halcrow).