Material Culture

Čebelice: življenska zgodba nekega mozaika / The Bees: the life story of a certain mosaic

by Bernarda Zupanek

The paper presents the life story of the Bees, a mosaic from the Roman town of Emona (modern Ljubljana), which was... more The paper presents the life story of the Bees, a mosaic from the Roman town of Emona (modern Ljubljana), which was reworked in the 1930s in such a way as to give it new function and meaning in its new context. It is the opinion of the author that other examples of the reworking of Roman Emona in the 1930s suggest that this type of recycling and citation of the past, fused with a collage of modern elements, are part a wider phenomenon of referring to the highly prestigious, well respected ancient past of Emona in Ljubljana in this period.

Face, Counterface, Counterfeit. The Lost Silver Visage of the Reliquary of St. Anthony’s Jawbone

by Francesco Lucchini

Published in in Meaning in Motion. Semantics of Movement in Medieval Art and Architecture, edited by N. Zchomelidse and G. Freni (Princeton, 2011)

Follow the cut, follow the rhythm, follow the material

by Matt Edgeworth

2012 Norwegian Archaeological Review 45:1, 76-92

in the latest issue of Norwegian Archaeological Review, accompanied by comments from Åsa Berggren, Alfredo González-Ruibal, Tim Ingold, Gavin Lucas, Robin Skeates and Christopher Witmore, and a response by the author.

Archaeologists do not have to look to external theory to kick-start the interpretation of material remains. Greater... more Archaeologists do not have to look to external theory to kick-start the interpretation of material remains. Greater confidence can be placed in the meanings which emerge from our most basic encounters with archaeological evidence, which impart a direction and trajectory to research from the very outset– realigning applied ideas and giving impetus to new intellectual currents. Such emergent meanings already have intrinsic movement and vibrancy, deriving from a strong grounding in an unfolding material world opened up through excavation and direct contact with things. This paper explores the ways in which
archaeologists follow the rhythms and flows of cuts, artefacts and other material entities.

Combating Urban Disengagement? Stickers as a Form of Street Art

by Alice Clough

MA Thesis, published in UCL Anthropology Working Papers Series No. 09/2011

Stickers form a category of street art that is becoming increasingly popular in modern, industrial urban environments.... more Stickers form a category of street art that is becoming increasingly popular in modern, industrial urban environments. By exploiting the material properties of stickers, street artists are able to spread their work over large areas with little effort. Sticker designs are shared using the Internet, forming global networks of trade and exchange; they are also collected – an activity also enabled by their material properties – which allows individuals to re-establish meaningful relationships with material forms. A four-week fieldwork period in Berlin provided the opportunity to investigate the inner workings of the street art genre, from the perspective of their role in relation to other forms of visual media like corporate advertising. Sticker art is proven to occupy an unexpected position, incorporating aspects of both anti-capitalist and capitalist methods and ideologies. It also has important implications for the future development of the street art subculture, as it raises issues of popularisation, dislocation, and the subsequent stagnation of street art in Berlin.

Totality Decomposed: Objectalizing Late Socialism in Post-Soviet Biochronicles

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

in The Russian Review. Special Issue on Documentary Trends in Contemporary Russian Culture. Vol.69. No.4. (2010): 638-669.

Aesthetics Without Law: Cinematic Bandits in Postsoviet Space

by Serguei Alex. Oushakine (Сергей Ушакин)

in Slavic and East European Journal. Vol. 51 No. 2 (Summer 2007): 357-390.

Herold, H. 2001, ‘Experimente zur handgeformten awarenzeitlichen Keramik von Zillingtal, Burgenland’ (Experiments Related to the Hand-Modelled Ceramics of the Avar Period from Zillingtal, Burgenland – in German), in Grömer, K., Löcker, K., Mehofer M. (eds.), Experimentelle Archäologie – Einen Versuch ist es wert, Archäologie Österreichs, Sonderausgabe 12, Wien, 29–33.

by Hajnalka Herold

V&A Online Journal

by Alice Dolan

Sheridan, J., & Chamberlain, K. (2011). The power of things. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 8, 315-332

by Kerry Chamberlain

DOI:10.1080/14780880903490821

Qualitative research extensively utilises interviews to gain insight into the intricacy and texture of lived... more Qualitative research extensively utilises interviews to gain insight into the intricacy and texture of lived experience. However, there is growing recognition of the limitations of interviewing as a data-gathering method. Popular alternatives include a move to visual methods, such as photo-production, to enhance the interviewing process. In this paper we argue for the power of materiality in this process. We propose that material objects, such as photographs, items of clothing, personal journals, and such like, have power to simultaneously provide proof of the past, produce increased narrative depth, force change in narratives, and also change the interview process and the relationships caught up within it. We illustrate these issues by drawing on data from a research project about weight loss, We conclude by considering the implications and value of using material things in research.

Book Review -- Materialising Exile: Material Culture and Embodied Experience Among Karenni Refugees in Thailand (Sandra Dudley)

by Tyrell Haberkorn

Published in South East Asia Research 20.1 (March 2012): 141-142.

Un fragile tesoro: i recipienti in vetro dalle discariche dell’isolato 140.

by Margherita Ferri

FERRI M. (2011). Un fragile tesoro: i recipienti in vetro dalle discariche dell’isolato 140. In: GELICHI SAURO. Analizzare lo spazio, analizzare il tempo. La storia di un isolato di Stari Bar. p. 86-93, FIRENZE: All’insegna del Giglio, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-7814-525-2

Review: ‘Style and Classification in the History of Art’. Robert Bagley, Max Loehr and the Study of Chinese Bronzes. Style and Classification in the History of Art, Ithaca, NY: Cornell East Asia Series, 2008

by Matthew Martin

Einführung. In: Elisabeth Vavra, Kornelia Holzner-Tobisch, Thomas Kühtreiber (Hg.), Vom Umgang mit Schätzen. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit 20, Wien 2007, 21-34

by Thomas Kühtreiber

Ice Roads Mobilities: A Photo Essay from the MacKenzie Delta

by Phillip Vannini

A photo essay with Jonathan Taggart

Living off the grid tie doesn’t mean living without a road to take home. It's true that there are some small island... more Living off the grid tie doesn’t mean living without a road to take home. It's true that there are some small island communities (such as British Columbia’s Lasqueti Island) which thrive without a bridge or a car ferry, but it is uncommon for off-grid dwellings to be without some kind of road access. And while it's true that you’re unlikely to run into an off-grid home near a freeway exit or along a littered cup's windblown flight route from the nearest Tim Horton's, the acreages in the exurban and rural areas that off-gridders call home are always located at the end of a driveway.


http://publicethnography.net/ice-roads-mobilities-photo-essay-mackenzie-delta

Steampunk's Legacy: Collecting and exhibiting the future of yesterday

by Jeanette Atkinson

Forthcoming (2012) in Steaming into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology, Julie Anne Taddeo, Cynthia Miller and Ken Dvorak (eds).  Lanham: Scarecrow Press

In creating a striking visual and material culture, set within an alternative historical timeline, steampunks are... more In creating a striking visual and material culture, set within an alternative historical timeline, steampunks are challenging traditional representations of history and what constitutes “authentic” heritage. This, potentially, contests the curatorial voice within Western museums. This chapter engages with these challenges through examining recent exhibitions of steampunk art and material culture and encounters between curators and steampunks, with the aim of furthering the understanding of the power relations between museums and counter-communities such as steampunks.

Objects mediating relationships in changing contexts : the Firth collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands

by Elizabeth Bonshek

1999, MA Thesis, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University.

In this thesis I investigate how Raymond Firth made his collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands in 1928; the social... more In this thesis I investigate how Raymond Firth made his collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands in 1928; the social life of the collection , since its arrival in Australia and its relocation from the Anthropology Department at the University to the Institute of Anatomy in Canberra and its return to Sydney where it is now housed at the Australian Museum. Using Firth's ethnography and his detail concerning how objects were collected, I suggest that the collection represented a particular relationship between Firth and the Tikopia in 1928.

Objects mediating relationships in changing contexts : the Firth collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands

by Elizabeth Bonshek

1999, MA Thesis, Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University.

In this thesis I investigate how Raymond Firth made his collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands in 1928; the social... more In this thesis I investigate how Raymond Firth made his collection from Tikopia, Solomon Islands in 1928; the social life of the collection , since its arrival in Australia and its relocation from the Anthropology Department at the University to the Institute of Anatomy in Canberra and its return to Sydney where it is now housed at the Australian Museum. Using Firth's ethnography and his detail concerning how objects were collected, I suggest that the collection represented a particular relationship between Firth and the Tikopia in 1928.

Collecting Relations in Melanesia: making a contemporary collection in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

by Elizabeth Bonshek

Journal of Museum Ethnography, No. 23 (2010), pp. 7-20.

http://www.museumethnographersgroup.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=24

"In this paper I examine the response of Peter Kinjap, a Mondika man from Alkena village in the Western Highlands... more "In this paper I examine the response of Peter Kinjap, a Mondika man from Alkena village in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, to the British Museum's collection from his province. A major concern to emerge for Kinjap on viewing the objects was the lack of representation of his tribe Mondika, in the collection. His response focused on this absence, rather than on challenging any perceived institutional or academic authoritative claim on the part of the museum to represent the "other". Towards the end of his visit, Kinjap suggested making a bilum (string bag) collection from his home village for the museum. I discuss here the issues and concerns faced by Kinjap in confronting the absence of a Mondika collection, and subsequently in the making of the bilum collection for the museum."

Amazonian Exchanges: Txema’s Lessons With Outboard Engines, Mosquito Nets And Images

by Barbara Arisi

Abstract: This article provides an ethnographic analysis of lessons given by an Amazonian Indian elder called Txema... more Abstract: This article provides an ethnographic analysis of lessons given by an Amazonian Indian elder called Txema concerning transactions of objects and images. Txema has lived
until 1978 in the Amazon as  a hunter and farmer in very small communities spread in the forest mainly avoiding conflict with non-indigenous people. The Matis established contact with the Brazilians in 1978 and now Txema deals with British TV crews and researchers. This paper brings detailed information on how Txema transacts many objects like outboard engines and mosquito nets for images and care. Values are discussed in those transactions. Drawing an ethnographic description as the way to achieve reflection, this paper tries to show a close approach to what kind of transformation a lot of industrialized objects provoke in an indigenous community. Material culture exchanges are closely related to values and Txema teaches us what is valuable for this elder Amazonian man.
Keywords: value, economy, transaction, Amazon, Pano, Matis

Las rutas del palo de Brazil: Contrabando, monopolio real y libre comercio en la provincia de Santa Marta (1778-1850)

by Camilo Torres

Ante-proyecto de mi trabajo de posgrado en historia

Esta investigación busca analizar uno de los procesos de extracción del palo de Brasil en la provincia de Santa Marta,... more Esta investigación busca analizar uno de los procesos de extracción del palo de Brasil en la provincia de Santa Marta, su distribución (legal e ilegal) a través del Atlántico y su consumo en Europa, entre finales del siglo XVIII y mediados del XIX. De esta manera, a partir de un producto poco estudiado, se busca hacer un aporte a la historia atlántica y del Caribe desde la historia de las mercancías.