What Objects Mean: Part I: Theoretical Approaches to Material Culture

What Objects Mean: Part I: Theoretical Approaches to Material Culture

1. Chapter One: Making Sense of Material Culture

   • "The objects which surround us do not simply have utilitarian aspects; rather, they serve as a kind of mirror which reflects our own image."  "Objects which surround us permit us to discover more and more aspects of ourselves."  "Knowledge of the soul of things is possibly a very direct and new and revolutionary way of discovering the soul of man." "The power of various types of objects to bring out into the open new aspects of the personality of modern man is great. The more intimate knowledge of as many different types of products a man has, the richer his life will be...." "The things which surround us motivate us to a very large extent in our everyday behavior."
   • Defining Material Culture
     • "The things we buy or are given are known as 'objects' and 'artifacts' in scholarly discourse, and these objects and artifacts form what social scientists call material culture." (16). "Material culture, we must recognize, is a kind of culture...because it shows the relationship between culture and artifacts...." (17).
     • The Blue Carbuncle as a Model for the Study of Material Culture
       • On the Nature of Theory
         • Nietzsche & Perspectivism
           • The Rashomon Problem
             • Chapter Two: A Freudian Psycholanalytic Approach
               • Artifacts & the Unconscious: Freud's Topographic Hypothesis
                 • Id, Ego & Superego: Freud's Structural Hypothesis
                   • Symbolic Aspects of Material Culture
                     • Sexual Development & Material Culture
                       • Conclusions
                         • Chapter Three: Semiotic Approaches to Material Culture
                           • Saussure on Signs
                             • Problems with Interpreting Signs
                               • Peirce on Signs
                                 • Roland Barthes on the Semiotics of Objects
                                   • On the Veracity of Signs
                                     • Denotation and Connotation
                                       • Conclusions

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