Course Description and Outcomes

This seminar is an introduction to the art history methodology of material culture. 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. Scholars of material culture investigate these cultural products as a way to uncover the beliefs, values, attitudes, needs, hopes and fears of a particular society at a particular moment. In this class we will look at art (early American portraiture; southern plantation architecture; hand-built wooden furniture), luxury goods (Marie Antoinette’s clothing; silver teapots), consumer goods (Tupperware; table forks), and popular imagery (photographs of President Kennedy; the interior decor of Graceland) through the material culture lens.

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.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Responses for Friday, October 10
















This week, please respnd to the reading of your choice.
Richard L. Bushman, Chapter 1, “The Gentrification of Rural Delaware,” pp. 3- 29; Chapter 2, “Courtesy Books,” pp. 30-60, and Chapter 3, “Bodies and Minds,” pp. 61-99, in The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (New York: Vintage Books, 1993).
Barbara G. Carson, “Customs and Manners: Ranks and Fashion at Mealtime,” in Ambitious Appetites: Dining, Behavior, and Patterns of Consumption in Federal Washington (AIA Press, 1990), 59-73.
Rodris Roth, “Tea-Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage,” in Material Life in America, 1600-1860, edited by Robert Blair St. George (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), 439-462.

If you don't understand something about the readings, please ask questions in your response.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Responses for Friday, September 26



















This week, please respond to any aspect of your reading in Adrian Forty, Objects of Desire: Design and Society Since 1750 (New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992).
Consider especially the way the design of an object affects its production and/or use. If you choose to talk about a chapter in the book that not everyone else has read, make sure you explain any examples that you may cite so that everyone can follow along.
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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Responses for Friday, September 19



















This week, please respond to William Rathje and Cullen Murphy, Chapters 1 and 3, Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), 1-29 and 53-78. Try to get beyond the novelty of Rathje's project in your response. Try to answer the following questions: Is Rathje really practicing material culture study? Compared to the material culture studies we have already read and considered, how is Rathje's brand of material culture similar or different?
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