Paper short abstract:

Drawing from ethnoarchaeological research in Mali and archaeological research in the Casas Grandes system from Northern Mexico, I argue that Marxian holism provides a pluralistic framework for the analyses of domesticity.

Paper long abstract:

Marxism is typically associated with radical politics and often even more radical theory. Yet, the holistic vision offered by Marxian approaches to cultural ontology and to epistemology can also be read as a call for moderation. In the past, Marxian perspectives have offered archaeologists with a middle-of-the-road antidote to the binary thinking that produced processualist and postprocessualist positions. I would suggest that these same perspectives offer a broad framework that now could inspire archaeologists to convert their eclecticism into a more productive form of theoretical pluralism. Drawing on ethnoarchaeological research in Mali and archaeological investigations in the Casas Grandes system from Northern Mexico, I outline how engagements with Marx can enable robust analyses of domesticity.