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, March 22, 2008

Readings for March 26


For this week, respond to the reading of your choice. Consider the following question in relation to the reading that you choose: What can we learn by looking at objects/art through the lens of race?
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Saturday, March 1, 2008

Responses for Wednesday, March 5


This week, consider the way in which art historians have considered the attribute of artistic "style" as a method of understanding material culture. Where does this branch of material culture scholarship intersect with what we have already studied and where does it diverge? Does it offer the art historian a particularly "art historical" material culture methodology to work with?

Respond to: Jonathan Prown and Richard Miller, “The Rococo, the Grotto, and the Philadelphia High Chest,” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite (Chipstone, 1996), 105-136.
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