Place as Material Culture

Place as Material Culture PDF Author: Dragoş Gheorghiu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443853836
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
The present book explores the complexity of the past, by analysing the relationships between place, territory, the material value of objects and landscapes, time and ritual, during archaeological investigations. It presents the archaeology of place as a series of interconnecting and interactive relationships. It is clear that things and places do not emerge without some form of agency, usually through the concept of material manipulation, coupled with elaboration, innovation and time. Depending on the raw material used and the process of manipulation and its relationship with the environment, materiality gains value. How do we as modern humans work within the complexity of place, materiality, time, and ritual? Traditional in archaeological discourse is the need to describe place, albeit in an empiricist and banal way. Discourse is sometimes followed by a more fruitful and interpretive account. However, these accounts tend to ignore human emotion that is bound-up in place, for example the ritualized and symbolic meanings that place holds. This book explores the significance of geography, place and the materiality that place holds, and challenges many of the tradition norms that in the past have trivialized landscape archaeology. The book is divided into 14 thought-provoking and crafted chapters and will be an ideal companion to anyone involved in the social sciences.

Place as Material Culture

Place as Material Culture PDF Author: Dragoş Gheorghiu
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443853836
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
The present book explores the complexity of the past, by analysing the relationships between place, territory, the material value of objects and landscapes, time and ritual, during archaeological investigations. It presents the archaeology of place as a series of interconnecting and interactive relationships. It is clear that things and places do not emerge without some form of agency, usually through the concept of material manipulation, coupled with elaboration, innovation and time. Depending on the raw material used and the process of manipulation and its relationship with the environment, materiality gains value. How do we as modern humans work within the complexity of place, materiality, time, and ritual? Traditional in archaeological discourse is the need to describe place, albeit in an empiricist and banal way. Discourse is sometimes followed by a more fruitful and interpretive account. However, these accounts tend to ignore human emotion that is bound-up in place, for example the ritualized and symbolic meanings that place holds. This book explores the significance of geography, place and the materiality that place holds, and challenges many of the tradition norms that in the past have trivialized landscape archaeology. The book is divided into 14 thought-provoking and crafted chapters and will be an ideal companion to anyone involved in the social sciences.

Craft, Community and the Material Culture of Place and Politics, 19th-20th Century

Craft, Community and the Material Culture of Place and Politics, 19th-20th Century PDF Author: Dr Beverly Lemire
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 9781409462071
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
With object study at the core, this book brings together a collection of essays that address the past and present of craft production, its use and meaning within a range of community settings from the Huron Wendat of colonial Quebec to the Girls’ Friendly Society of twentieth-century England. The making of handcrafted objects has and continues to flourish despite the powerful juggernaut of global industrialization. By attending to the political histories of craft objects and their makers, over the last few centuries, these essays reveal the creative persistence of various hand mediums and the material debates they represented.

Building the British Atlantic World

Building the British Atlantic World PDF Author: Daniel Maudlin
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469626837
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
Spanning the North Atlantic rim from Canada to Scotland, and from the Caribbean to the coast of West Africa, the British Atlantic world is deeply interconnected across its regions. In this groundbreaking study, thirteen leading scholars explore the idea of transatlanticism--or a shared "Atlantic world" experience--through the lens of architecture, built spaces, and landscapes in the British Atlantic from the seventeenth century through the mid-nineteenth century. Examining town planning, churches, forts, merchants' stores, state houses, and farm houses, this collection shows how the powerful visual language of architecture and design allowed the people of this era to maintain common cultural experiences across different landscapes while still forming their individuality. By studying the interplay between physical construction and social themes that include identity, gender, taste, domesticity, politics, and race, the authors interpret material culture in a way that particularly emphasizes the people who built, occupied, and used the spaces and reflects the complex cultural exchanges between Britain and the New World.

Material Culture and Sacred Landscape

Material Culture and Sacred Landscape PDF Author: Peter Jordan
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759102774
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This study provides a concrete example of how foraging societies enculturate and transform the natural environment and, through the use of material objects, create sacred spaces and sites. Using ethnographic and ethnohistorical information about the Khanty of Siberia, Jordan shows the shortcomings of both interpretive and materialist anthropological theorizing about hunters and gatherers. He focuses on the rich and complex relationship between the symbolism of the Khanty, their material culture, and the bringing of meaning to physical places. His examination looks at the topic in both historical and contemporary contexts, and in scales from the core-periphery model of Russian colonialism to the portrait of a single yurt community. Jordan's work will be of importance to those studying cultural anthropology, archaeology, and comparative religion.

Understanding Material Culture

Understanding Material Culture PDF Author: Ian Woodward
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 144623956X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
"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.

What Objects Mean

What Objects Mean PDF Author: Arthur Asa Berger
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315415844
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Arthur Asa Berger is back with the second edition of his popular, user-friendly guide for students who want to understand the social meanings of objects.

Handbook of Material Culture

Handbook of Material Culture PDF Author: Chris Tilley
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1446206432
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
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.

Asian Material Culture

Asian Material Culture PDF Author: Marianne Hulsbosch
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
ISBN: 9089640908
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
This richly illustrated volume offers the reader unique insight into the materiality of Asian cultures and the ways in which objects and practices can simultaneously embody and exhibit aesthetic and functional characteristics, as well as everyday and spiritual aspirations. Though each chapter is representative, rather than exhaustive, in its portrayal of Asian material culture, together they clearly demonstrate that objects are entities that resonate with discourses of human relationships, personal and group identity formations, ethics, values, trade, and, above all, distinctive futures.

The Material Culture Reader

The Material Culture Reader PDF Author: Victor Buchli
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000184161
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Material culture has finally earned a central place within anthropology. Emerging from the pioneering work done at University College London, this reader brings together for the first time seminal articles that have helped shape the anthropological study of material culture. With topics ranging from the anthropology of art to architecture, landscape studies, archaeology, consumption studies and heritage management, this key text reflects the breadth of material culture studies today. The authors, who discuss field sites as distant as Vanuatu, New Ireland, Trinidad and Soviet Russia, show how material culture provides a new lens for viewing the world around us and effectively bridges the gap between theory and data. Providing the first-ever synthesis of these ground-breaking essays in an easily accessible volume, this book will serve as a comprehensive introduction to the subject and a valuable reference guide for anyone interested in material culture, anthropology, art and museum studies.

Elusive Archives

Elusive Archives PDF Author: Martin Brückner
Publisher: Material Culture Perspectives
ISBN: 9781644532249
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Elusive Archives asks how historians, librarians, and museum professionals can bring together scattered, lost, or otherwise forgotten objects into a provisional collection, an elusive archive. Addressing a wide range of objects, the authors' diverse approaches, varying formats, and broad scope of inquiries describe a new conceptual territory at the intersection of archival studies and material culture studies.