Course Description and Outcomes:

Simply put, the study of material culture is the study of “things”—human-made or human-modified products. These “things” can include clothing, your grandmother’s heirloom jewelry, a formally landscaped garden, a painting, or the contents of a trash can. The study of material culture is based on the belief that human-made objects can be “read” in much the same way that we read written texts. Scholars of material culture read cultural products as a way to uncover the beliefs, values, attitudes, needs, hopes and fears of a particular society at a particular moment.

However, the study of objects alone is not enough. Material culture scholars must study contexts as well as objects, for it is only by considering the historical, social, spatial, and cultural contexts that we can come to a fuller understanding of the meaning expressed by the human-made/modified product itself.

In addition, the field of material culture studies is filled with challenges and debates. Scholars sometimes argue that objects “speak” to us about the past. What does this mean? How can we know for sure what the artifact(s) is “saying” to us? What are the limitations of using objects as evidence? Is it possible to overstate an object’s value as evidence? Is it possible to overstrain an interpretation? Such questions are endemic to the field and are important to our investigations this semester.

This course introduces students to the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of material culture studies through readings, discussion, and research in an array of fields including art history, anthropology, folklore, and history. It is important to recognize that our readings will NOT deal primarily with contemporary art. Rather, this seminar is designed to help you develop critical skills of object analysis and will encourage you to consider the relationships between human –made/modified products and cultural meaning. Finally, through your research projects and presentations we will interrogate the ways material culture methodology is/may be used by practicing artists.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Responses for Wednesday, January 30













Please respond to the following readings:

Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, “Shaping the Field: The Multidisciplinary Perspectives of Material Culture,” in American Material Culture: The Shape of the Field, edited by Ann Smart Martin and J. Ritchie Garrison, (Winterthur, Delaware: Winterthur Museum, 1997), 1-20.

Dell Upton, “The City as Material Culture,” in The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology, Essays in Honor of James Deetz, edited by Anne Yentsch and Mary Beaudry (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1992), 51-74.


Keep in mind that your responses should do two things. 1) You should include a short summary of the author’s argument and/or purpose, and 2) you should include observations, questions, and points of discussion for the class.

You may always express your own opinions and you may compare specific ideas that you find in the reading to your own outside knowledge or experience. You may want to consider if or how the ideas in the readings may be useful to you or how they might be applied to the work/philosophy of the contemporary artist.

Click on the comments section of this post to add your response and read the thoughts of your classmates. Remember to post before Monday at noon and check back to read all the comments before class. Please sign your responses with an identifiable nickname so that we all know who has been responding and so that I can give the proper person credit for her/his ideas! Happy blogging.
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Monday, January 21, 2008

Welcome to HU625

Hello class,

Welcome to the HU625 blog. More information coming soon.
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