Material Culture Review

Material Culture Review Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Material Culture Review book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Understanding Material Culture

Ian Woodward

Author : Ian Woodward
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2007-05-09
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781848607262

Get Book

Understanding Material Culture by Ian Woodward Pdf

"In his interdisciplinary review of material culture, Ian Woodward goes beyond synthesis to offer a theoretically innovative reconstruction of the field. It is filled with gems of conceptual insight and empirical discovery. A wonderful book." - Jeffrey C. Alexander, Yale University "A well-grounded and accessible survey of the burgeoning field of material culture studies for students in sociology and consumption studies. While situating the field within the history of intellectual thought in the broader social sciences, it offers detailed and accessible case studies. These are supplemented by very useful directions for further in-depth reading, making it an excellent undergraduate course companion." - Victor Buchli, University College London Why are i-pods and mobile phones fashion accessories? Why do people spend thousands remodelling their perfectly functional kitchen? Why do people crave shoes or handbags? Is our desire for objects unhealthy, or irrational? Objects have an inescapable hold over us, not just in consumer culture but increasingly in the disciplines that study social relations too. This book offers a systematic overview of the diverse ways of studying the material as culture. Surveying the field of material culture studies through an examination and synthesis of classical and contemporary scholarship on objects, commodities, consumption, and symbolization, this book: introduces the key concepts and approaches in the study of objects and their meanings presents the full sweep of core theory - from Marxist and critical approaches to structuralism and semiotics shows how and why people use objects to perform identity, achieve social status, and narrativize life experiences analyzes everyday domains in which objects are important shows why studying material culture is necessary for understanding the social. This book will be essential reading for students and researchers in sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, consumer behaviour studies, design and fashion studies.

Goods, Power, History

Arnold J. Bauer

Author : Arnold J. Bauer
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 270 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2001-04-30
Category : History
ISBN : 052177702X

Get Book

Goods, Power, History by Arnold J. Bauer Pdf

Explores the history of material culture and consumption in Latin America over the past 500 years.

A Philosophy of Material Culture

Beth Preston

Author : Beth Preston
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9780415623087

Get Book

A Philosophy of Material Culture by Beth Preston Pdf

This book focuses on material culture as a subject of philosophical inquiry and promotes the philosophical study of material culture by articulating some of the central and difficult issues raised by this topic and providing innovative solutions to them, most notably an account of improvised action and a non-intentionalist account of function in material culture. Preston argues that material culture essentially involves activities of production and use; she therefore adopts an action-theoretic foundation for a philosophy of material culture. Part 1 illustrates this foundation through a critique, revision, and extension of existing philosophical theories of action. Part 2 investigates a salient feature of material culture itself-its functionality. A basic account of function in material culture is constructed by revising and extending existing theories of biological function to fit the cultural case. Here the adjustments are for the most part necessitated by special features of function in material culture. These two parts of the project are held together by a trio of overarching themes: the relationship between individual and society, the problem of centralized control, and creativity.

History Through Material Culture

Leonie Hannan,Sarah Longair

Author : Leonie Hannan,Sarah Longair
Publisher : IHR Research Guides
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : History
ISBN : 1784991260

Get Book

History Through Material Culture by Leonie Hannan,Sarah Longair Pdf

History through material culture is an excellent guide for students and researchers who wish to use objects as historical sources. Responding to the significant, scholarly interest in historical material culture studies, this book provides the first step-by-step guide to developing historicalresearch based around objects. The book makes clear how students and researchers can use these rich material sources to make important, valuable and original contributions to history.Written by two experienced museum practitioners and historians, the book recognises the theoretical and practical challenges of this approach and offers clear advice on methods to get the best out of material culture research. With a focus on the early modern and modern periods, this book draws onexamples from across the world and demonstrates how to use material culture to answer a range of enquiries, including social, economic, gender, cultural and global history.

Food Waste

David M. Evans

Author : David M. Evans
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2014-10-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780857852342

Get Book

Food Waste by David M. Evans Pdf

In recent years, food waste has risen to the top of the political and public agenda, yet until now there has been no scholarly analysis applied to the topic as a complement and counter-balance to campaigning and activist approaches. Using ethnographic material to explore global issues, Food Waste unearths the processes that lie behind the volume of food currently wasted by households and consumers. The author demonstrates how waste arises as a consequence of households negotiating the complex and contradictory demands of everyday life, explores the reasons why surplus food ends up in the bin, and considers innovative solutions to the problem. Drawing inspiration from studies of consumption and material culture alongside social science perspectives on everyday life and the home, this lively yet scholarly book is ideal for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines, along with anyone interested in understanding the food that we waste.

Handbook of Material Culture

Chris Tilley,Webb Keane,Susanne Kuechler,Mike Rowlands,Patricia Spyer

Author : Chris Tilley,Webb Keane,Susanne Kuechler,Mike Rowlands,Patricia Spyer
Publisher : SAGE
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2006-01-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781446206430

Get Book

Handbook of Material Culture by Chris Tilley,Webb Keane,Susanne Kuechler,Mike Rowlands,Patricia Spyer Pdf

The study of material culture is concerned with the relationship between persons and things in the past and in the present, in urban and industrialized and in small-scale societies across the globe. The Handbook of Material Culture provides a critical survey of the theories, concepts, intellectual debates, substantive domains and traditions of study characterizing the analysis of things. It is cutting-edge: rather than simply reviewing the field as it currently exists. It also attempts to chart the future: the manner in which material culture studies may be extended and developed. The Handbook of Material Culture is divided into five sections. • Section I maps material culture studies as a theoretical and conceptual field. • Section II examines the relationship between material forms, the human body and the senses. • Section III focuses on subject-object relations. • Section IV considers things in terms of processes and transformations in terms of production, exchange and consumption, performance and the significance of things over the long-term. • Section V considers the contemporary politics and poetics of displaying, representing and conserving material and the manner in which this impacts on notions of heritage, tradition and identity. The Handbook charts an interdisciplinary field of studies that makes an unique and fundamental contribution to an understanding of what it means to be human. It will be of interest to all who work in the social and historical sciences, from anthropologists and archaeologists to human geographers to scholars working in heritage, design and cultural studies.

Childhood by Design

Megan Brandow-Faller

Author : Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2018-04-19
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781501332043

Get Book

Childhood by Design by Megan Brandow-Faller Pdf

Informed by the analytical practices of the interdisciplinary 'material turn' and social historical studies of childhood, Childhood By Design: Toys and the Material Culture of Childhood offers new approaches to the material world of childhood and design culture for children. This volume situates toys and design culture for children within broader narratives on history, art, design and the decorative arts, where toy design has traditionally been viewed as an aberration from more serious pursuits. The essays included treat toys not merely as unproblematic reflections of socio-cultural constructions of childhood but consider how design culture actively shaped, commodified and materialized shifting discursive constellations surrounding childhood and children. Focusing on the new array of material objects designed in response to the modern 'invention' of childhood-what we might refer to as objects for a childhood by design-Childhood by Design explores dynamic tensions between theory and practice, discursive constructions and lived experience as embodied in the material culture of childhood. Contributions from and between a variety of disciplinary perspectives (including history, art history, material cultural studies, decorative arts, design history, and childhood studies) are represented – critically linking historical discourses of childhood with close study of material objects and design culture. Chronologically, the volume spans the 18th century, which witnessed the invention of the toy as an educational plaything and a proliferation of new material artifacts designed expressly for children's use; through the 19th-century expansion of factory-based methods of toy production facilitating accuracy in miniaturization and a new vocabulary of design objects coinciding with the recognition of childhood innocence and physical separation within the household; towards the intersection of early 20th-century child-centered pedagogy and modernist approaches to nursery and furniture design; through the changing consumption and sales practices of the postwar period marketing directly to children through television, film and other digital media; and into the present, where the line between the material culture of childhood and adulthood is increasingly blurred.

The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies

Dan Hicks,Mary C. Beaudry

Author : Dan Hicks,Mary C. Beaudry
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 794 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2010-09-02
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780199218714

Get Book

The Oxford Handbook of Material Culture Studies by Dan Hicks,Mary C. Beaudry Pdf

Written by an international team of experts, the Handbook makes accessible a full range of theoretical and applied approaches to the study of material culture, and the place of materiality in social theory, presenting current thinking about material culture from the fields of archaeology, anthropology, geography, and science and technology studies.

Vernacular Architecture

Henry Glassie

Author : Henry Glassie
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2000-12-22
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9780253023629

Get Book

Vernacular Architecture by Henry Glassie Pdf

Based on thirty-five years of fieldwork, Glassie's Vernacular Architecture synthesizes a career of concern with traditional building. He articulates the key principles of architectural analysis, and then, centering his argument in the United States, but drawing comparative examples from many locations in Europe and Asia, he shows how architecture can be a prime resource for the one who would write a democratic and comprehensive history.

History and Material Culture

Karen Harvey

Author : Karen Harvey
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 283 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2017-09-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781351678117

Get Book

History and Material Culture by Karen Harvey Pdf

Sources are the raw material of History, but whereas the written word has traditionally been seen as the principal source, historians now recognize the value of sources beyond text. In this new edition of History and Material Culture, contributors consider a range of objects – from an eighteenth-century bed curtain to a twenty-first-century shopping trolley – which can help historians develop new interpretations and new knowledge about the past. Containing two new chapters on healing objects in East Africa and the shopping trolley in the social world, this book examines a variety of material sources from around the globe and across centuries to assess how such sources can be used to study the distant and the recent past. In a revised introduction, Karen Harvey discusses some of the principal issues raised when historians use material culture, particularly in the context of 'the material turn', and suggests some initial steps for those unfamiliar with these kinds of sources. While the sources are discussed from interdisciplinary perspectives, the emphasis of the book is on what historians stand to gain from using material culture, as well as what historians have to offer the broader study of material culture. Clearly written and accessible, this book is the ideal introduction to the opportunities and challenges of researching material culture, and is essential reading for all students of historical theory and method.

The Lives of Objects

Maia Kotrosits

Author : Maia Kotrosits
Publisher : Class 200: New Studies in Religion
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Church history
ISBN : 9780226707587

Get Book

The Lives of Objects by Maia Kotrosits Pdf

"Judaism and Christianity as condensed illustrations of how people across time struggle with the materiality of life and death. Speaking across many fields, including classics, history, anthropology, literary, gender, and queer studies, the book journeys through the ancient Mediterranean world by way of the myriad physical artifacts that punctuate the transnational history of early Christianity. By bringing a psychoanalytically inflected approach to bear upon her materialist studies of religious history, Kotrosits makes a contribution not only to our understanding of Judaism and early Christianity, but also our sense of how different disciplines construe historical knowledge, and how we as people and thinkers understand our own relation to our material and affective past"--

Writing Material Culture History

Anne Gerritsen,Giorgio Riello

Author : Anne Gerritsen,Giorgio Riello
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 553 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781350105249

Get Book

Writing Material Culture History by Anne Gerritsen,Giorgio Riello Pdf

Writing Material Culture History 2e examines the methodologies used in the historical study of material culture. Looking at archaeology, anthropology, art history and literary studies, the book provides students with a fundamental understanding of the relationship between artefacts and historical narratives. The book addresses the role of museums, the impact of the digital age and the representations of objects in public history, bringing together students and specialists from around the world. This new edition includes: A new substantive introduction from the editors, providing a useful roadmap for students and specialists. A more balanced and easy-to-use structure, including methodological chapters and 'object in focus' chapters consisting of case studies for classroom discussion. New chapters showing greater engagement with 20th-century material culture, non-European artefacts and the definitions and limits of material culture as a discipline. Offers global coverage and discussion of both the early modern and modern periods. Writing Material Culture History 2e is an essential tool for students seeking to understand the potential of objects to re-cast established historical narratives in new and exciting ways.

Thinking Through Material Culture

Carl Knappett

Author : Carl Knappett
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2010-11-24
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780812202496

Get Book

Thinking Through Material Culture by Carl Knappett Pdf

Material culture surrounds us and yet is habitually overlooked. So integral is it to our everyday lives that we take it for granted. This attitude has also afflicted the academic analysis of material culture, although this is now beginning to change, with material culture recently emerging as a topic in its own right within the social sciences. Carl Knappett seeks to contribute to this emergent field by adopting a wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach that is rooted in archaeology and integrates anthropology, sociology, art history, semiotics, psychology, and cognitive science. His thesis is that humans both act and think through material culture; ways of knowing and ways of doing are ingrained within even the most mundane of objects. This requires that we adopt a relational perspective on material artifacts and human agents, as a means of characterizing their complex interdependencies. In order to illustrate the networks of meaning that result, Knappett discusses examples ranging from prehistoric Aegean ceramics to Zande hunting nets and contemporary art. Thinking Through Material Culture argues that, although material culture forms the bedrock of archaeology, the discipline has barely begun to address how fundamental artifacts are to human cognition and perception. This idea of codependency among mind, action, and matter opens the way for a novel and dynamic approach to all of material culture, both past and present.

Images at Work

David Morgan

Author : David Morgan
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780190272111

Get Book

Images at Work by David Morgan Pdf

Images can be studied in many ways--as symbols, displays of artistic genius, adjuncts to texts, or naturally occurring phenomena like reflections and dreams. Each of these approaches is justified by the nature of the image in question as well as the way viewers engage with it. But images are often something more when they perform in ways that exhibit a capacity to act independent of human will. Images come alive--they move us to action, calm us, reveal the power of the divine, change the world around us. In these instances, we need an alternative model for exploring what is at work, one that recognizes the presence of images as objects that act on us. Building on his previous innovative work in visual and religious studies, David Morgan creates a new framework for understanding how the human mind can be enchanted by images in Images at Work. In carefully crafted arguments, Morgan proposes that images are special kinds of objects, fashioned and recognized by human beings for their capacity to engage us. From there, he demonstrates that enchantment, as described, is not a violation of cosmic order, but a very natural way that the mind animates the world around it. His groundbreaking study outlines the deeply embodied process by which humans create culture by endowing places, things, and images with power and agency. These various agents--human and non-human, material, geographic, and spiritual--become nodes in the web of relationships, thus giving meaning to images and to human life. Marrying network theory with cutting-edge work in visual studies, and connecting the visual and bodily technologies employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans to secular icons like Che Guevara, Abraham Lincoln, and Mao, Images at Work will be transformative for those curious about why images seem to have a power of us in ways we can't always describe.