Destruction as creation: modes of intra-active becoming in a created and built world

Journal article

This provocation seeks to stimulate discussion by highlighting an alternative way of looking at the actions of destruction and creation, not as opposing forces but as an ongoing process of transformation. Destruction encompasses a variety of material and symbolic transformations, which go hand in hand with the creation of new possibilities. Therefore, destruction is not an antagonism to creation but – following Karen Barad’s agential realism – a mode of intra-active becoming. Far from being a theory in its own right, this paper presents a perspective that opens up the possibility of encountering archaeological discourses of destruction and creation from a posthumanist lens.

Authors: Schreiber, S; Rees, L

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Archaeological Dialogues
• Pages: 1-8
• Publication date: 2026-04-16
• Acceptance date: 2026-03-05
• DOI: 10.1017/s1380203826100269
• EISSN: 1478-2294
• ISSN: 1380-2038
• Language: English
• Keywords: Barad; creation; agential realism; Destruction; agencement