"Här finns bara lik" : Posthumanistiska perspektiv på dendrokronologi

Sammanfattning

This thesis explores dendrochronology – the scientific dating of wood through tree-ring analysis – through the lens of posthumanist and science and technology studies (STS) theory. Drawing on ethnographic observations in a Swedish dendrochronology lab and interviews with fieldworkers, the study investigates how both human and nonhuman actors co-produce scientific knowledge in everyday laboratory practices. The theoretical framework includes Donna Haraway’s notion of companion species, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s transformative mutualism, Karen Barad’s agential realism, and the cyborg figure as a metaphor for human–technology–material entanglements. By examining the role of trees, machines, husdjur, smells, physical and material environments, and even small organisms, the thesis shows how scientific practice in the lab is shaped by more-than-human relations. The study concludes that dendrochronology is not merely a technical method of measurement, but a situated and relational practice rooted in care, sensory calibration, and ecological entanglement. It proposes that more-than-human perspectives can open up new understandings of archaeological method and knowledge-making in the Anthropocene.