Material Cultures – serie

In Experiencing the Past Michael Shanks presents an animated exploration of the character of archaeology and reclaims the sentiment and feeling which are so often lost in purely academic approaches.

Social Transformations in Archaeology explores the relevance of archaeology to the study of long-term change and to the understanding of our contemporary world. The articles are divided into:* broader theoretical issues* post-colonial issues in a wide range of contexts* archaeological examination of colonialism with case studies from the Mediterranean in the first millenium BC and historical Africa.

Technological Choices applies the critical tools of archaeology to the subject of technology and its impact on humankind throughout the ages. An examination of the challenges technological innovations present to various cultures, Technological Choices asserts that in any society, such choices are made on the basis of cultural values and social relations, rather than on the inherent benefits in technology itself. Of course, this revolutionary viewpoint has critical implications for contemporary Western societies. Based on case studies covering a wide range of chronologies and geographies, Technological Choices moves rapidly from Neolithic Europe to the modern industrial age, stopping on the way to examine the tribes of Papua, New Guinea, rural Indian and North African societies as well as several European peasant communities. The techniques studied range from the manufacture of stone implements to the development of high-tech transportation devices. With its breadth of subject matter and multidisciplinary approach, Technological Choices offers new insight into the interrelationship between technology and society. Also unprecedented is the book's emphasis on the functional aspects of material culture.

Despite the enormous amount of material on the subject of Nazism, there has been no substantial work on its emblem, the swastika. This original and controversial contribution examines the role that the swastika played in the construction of the Aryan myth in the nineteenth century, and its use in Nazi ideology as a symbol of party, nation and race, treating it as symbolic phenomenon in a cultural context. By identifying the swastika as a boundary or liminal image, Malcolm Quinn allies visual anaysis to issues of material culture and history.

A multi-disciplinary overview providing new theories, critical analyses and the latest reasearch on this very fashionable topic. Includes chapters on consumption studies in anthropology, economics, history, sociology and many more areas.

Three hundred years ago people made most of what they used, or got it in trade from their neighbours. Now, no one seems to make anything, and we buy what we need from shops. Gifts and Commodities describes the cultural and historical process of these changes and looks at the rise of consumer society in Britain and the United States. It investigates the ways that people think about and relate to objects in twentieth-century culture, at how those relationships have developed, and the social meanings they have for relations with others.Using aspects of anthropology and sociology to describe the importance of shopping and gift-giving in our lives and in western economies, Gifts and Commodities:* traces the development of shopping and retailing practices, and the emergence of modern notions of objects and the self* brings together a wealth of information on the history of the retail trade* examines the reality of the distinctions we draw between the impersonal economic sphere and personal social sphere* offers a fully interdisciplinary study of the links we forge between ourselves, our social groups and the commodities we buy and give.

In this latest collection of his articles, of which seven are written especially for this volume, Ian Hodder captures and continues the lively controversy of the 1980s over symbolic and structural approaches to archaeology. The book acts as an overview of the developments in the discipline over the last decade; yet Hodder's brief is far wider. His aim is to break down the division between the intellectual and the "dirt" archaeologist to demonstrate that in this discipline more than any other, theory must be related to practice to save effectively our rapidly diminishing heritage.

Architecture is a powerful medium for representing, ordering and classifying the world, and understanding the use of space is fundamental to archaeological inquiry. Architecture and Order draws on the work of archaeologists, social theorists and architects to explore the way in which people relate to the architecture which surrounds them. In many societies, houses and tombs have encoded cultural meanings and values which are invoked and recalled through the practices of daily life.Chapters include explorations of the early farming r archi*eye of Europe, from before the use of metals, to the Classical and Medieval worlds of the Mediterranean and Europe. Research of the recent past and present include an overview of hunter-gatherers' camp organization, a reassessment of the use of space amongst the Dogon of West Africa and an examination of mental disorders relating to the use of space in Britain. The volume goes beyond the implication that culture determines form to develop an approach that integrates meaning and practice.

How do we become who we are? How is it that people are so similar in the ways they differ from one another, and so different in the ways they are the same?Christina Toren's theory of mind as not only a physical phenomenon, but an historical one, sets out to answer these questions by examining how the material world of objects and other people informs the constitution of mind in persons over time.This theory of embodied mind as a microhistorical process is set out in the first chapter, providing a context for the nine papers that follow. Questions explored include the way meaning-making processes reference an historically specific world and are responsible at once for continuity and change, how ritual informs children's constitution of the categories adults use to describe the world, and how people represent their relationships with one another and in so doing come to embody history.Mind, Materiality and History has direct relevance to current debates on the nature of mind and consciousness, and demonstrates the centrality of the study of children to social analysis. It will be a valuable resource for students and scholars with an interest in anthropological theory and methodology, as well as those engaged in material culture studies.

How do we become who we are? How is it that people are so similar in the ways they differ from one another, and so different in the ways they are the same?Christina Toren's theory of mind as not only a physical phenomenon, but an historical one, sets out to answer these questions by examining how the material world of objects and other people informs the constitution of mind in persons over time.This theory of embodied mind as a microhistorical process is set out in the first chapter, providing a context for the nine papers that follow. Questions explored include the way meaning-making processes reference an historically specific world and are responsible at once for continuity and change, how ritual informs children's constitution of the categories adults use to describe the world, and how people represent their relationships with one another and in so doing come to embody history.Mind, Materiality and History has direct relevance to current debates on the nature of mind and consciousness, and demonstrates the centrality of the study of children to social analysis. It will be a valuable resource for students and scholars with an interest in anthropological theory and methodology, as well as those engaged in material culture studies.

Time, Culture and Identity questions the modern western distinctions between:* nature and culture* mind and body* object and subject.Drawing on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Julian Thomas develops a way of writing about the past in which time is seen as central to the emergence of the identities of people and objects.

Technological Choices applies the critical tools of archaeology to the subject of technology and its impact on humankind throughout the ages. An examination of the challenges technological innovations present to various cultures, Technological Choices asserts that in any society, such choices are made on the basis of cultural values and social relations, rather than on the inherent benefits in technology itself. Of course, this revolutionary viewpoint has critical implications for contemporary Western societies. Based on case studies covering a wide range of chronologies and geographies, Technological Choices moves rapidly from Neolithic Europe to the modern industrial age, stopping on the way to examine the tribes of Papua, New Guinea, rural Indian and North African societies as well as several European peasant communities. The techniques studied range from the manufacture of stone implements to the development of high-tech transportation devices. With its breadth of subject matter and multidisciplinary approach, Technological Choices offers new insight into the interrelationship between technology and society. Also unprecedented is the book's emphasis on the functional aspects of material culture.

In Experiencing the Past Michael Shanks presents an animated exploration of the character of archaeology and reclaims the sentiment and feeling which are so often lost in purely academic approaches.

Three hundred years ago people made most of what they used, or got it in trade from their neighbours. Now, no one seems to make anything, and we buy what we need from shops. Gifts and Commodities describes the cultural and historical process of these changes and looks at the rise of consumer society in Britain and the United States. It investigates the ways that people think about and relate to objects in twentieth-century culture, at how those relationships have developed, and the social meanings they have for relations with others.Using aspects of anthropology and sociology to describe the importance of shopping and gift-giving in our lives and in western economies, Gifts and Commodities:* traces the development of shopping and retailing practices, and the emergence of modern notions of objects and the self* brings together a wealth of information on the history of the retail trade* examines the reality of the distinctions we draw between the impersonal economic sphere and personal social sphere* offers a fully interdisciplinary study of the links we forge between ourselves, our social groups and the commodities we buy and give.

Social Transformations in Archaeology explores the relevance of archaeology to the study of long-term change and to the understanding of our contemporary world. The articles are divided into:* broader theoretical issues* post-colonial issues in a wide range of contexts* archaeological examination of colonialism with case studies from the Mediterranean in the first millenium BC and historical Africa.

Architecture is a powerful medium for representing, ordering and classifying the world, and understanding the use of space is fundamental to archaeological inquiry. Architecture and Order draws on the work of archaeologists, social theorists and architects to explore the way in which people relate to the architecture which surrounds them. In many societies, houses and tombs have encoded cultural meanings and values which are invoked and recalled through the practices of daily life.Chapters include explorations of the early farming r archi*eye of Europe, from before the use of metals, to the Classical and Medieval worlds of the Mediterranean and Europe. Research of the recent past and present include an overview of hunter-gatherers' camp organization, a reassessment of the use of space amongst the Dogon of West Africa and an examination of mental disorders relating to the use of space in Britain. The volume goes beyond the implication that culture determines form to develop an approach that integrates meaning and practice.

A multi-disciplinary overview providing new theories, critical analyses and the latest reasearch on this very fashionable topic. Includes chapters on consumption studies in anthropology, economics, history, sociology and many more areas.