SOCI/ANTH 441 Material Culture Week 1: Introduction

Week 1 — IntroductionSOCI/ANTH 441 Material CultureAlexandre Enkerli

Today•Get to know each other•Introduce the course•Give ideas for project•Talk about things

Podcast•Audio recording•Automatic•Posted on Moodle after class•On-record•Can pause•Would prefer to leave on-record

Alex•Ethnographic disciplines (cultural

anthropology, linguistic anthropology, ethnomusicology, folkloristics)

•Summer sociology•Constructive, collaborative learning•Adapting•New course

Attitude Toward Material Culture•Somewhat detached, pragmatic•Geek culture•Not gadget freak•More aural than visual•Not full of “purty pickters” (pretty

pictures)•Navigate abstract and concrete•Sensory aspects

Introductions•Background

▫Academic▫Personal

•Material culture•Favourite thing?•Anything else?

Talking About Things

Terms•Thing, object, entity, stuff, matter,

substance, item, artefact, property•Possessions, belongings, commodities,

goods, products•It, this, that•Material, physical, virtual, imagined•Natural, manufactured, crafted,

processed

Some ThemesInequality, Gender, Domesticity, Public/private dichotomy, Class, Technology adoption, Science, Engineering, Postmodernism, Industrialization, Consumption, Globalization, Commodification. Environmentalism, Gift economy, Property rights, Intellectual property, Ethnic identity, Cultural diversity, Cultural heritage, Tradition, Appropriation, Personalization/customization, Fetishism, Value, Purity, Trash, Subjectivity, Embodiment, Agency, Materialism, Aesthetics...

Interdisciplinary•Psychology, cultural studies, engineering,

history, market research, folkloristics, architecture, economics, archaeology, popular culture, art history, gender studies, semiotics, political science, museum studies, consumer research, American studies, etc.

•Focus on anthropology and sociology

Own Approach to Course•Ethnography•Folkloristics•Music•Sensory anthropology•Semiotics

Course Outline•May change•From lecture to discussion to

presentations•Attendance required, even during

presentations•Seminar participation outside of class•Come prepared•“Prewrite”

Readings•RefWorks•All in databases (links to PDF Files)•On-Campus•May add or replace

▫Web content•Supplementary readings

▫Project▫Further understanding

Moodle•Readings•Assignments•“Handouts”•Slides•Podcast•Forums

▫Forced but can unsubscribe•Podcasts

Social analysis of an object

Three parts•Description of a Thing (20%, due October

1)•Presentation (30%, November 5—26)•Final Paper (40%, Due December 5)

Project Guidelines•Social science on thing•People through objects•From thing to society/culture•Focus on anthropology/sociology•Multiple angles

Choosing a Thing•Leaving open•Some advice•If need help, can discuss•No ideal thing, no impossible thing•Accessible literature

• Not too specialized• Not overwhelming

Example Things•Computer keyboard, cellphone, vinyl

record, vitamin tablets, Aeron chair, vibrator, statue

•Hood (UofT): blackboards, hats, political buttons, music boxes, dress, chocolate, tattoo, postcards, mirrors...

•Other examples: rock, bumper stickers, stamp, t-shirts, car, bicycle

Thing Characteristics•Bounded or boundless•Unique (Statue of Liberty) or category

(pills)•Durable or transient/ephemeral•Technology

Choosing Approach•Named theory (SCOT, SST, ANT,

Symbolic Interactionism)•Scholars•Field/domain•Background•Other work

Method•Description (including sensory)•Genealogy (history, genesis)•Ethnography (including

autoethnography/introspection)•Social/cultural analysis (adoption,

implications, impacts, meanings...)

Questions to ask•Dimensions from Joseph Dumit’s Artifact

Project http://web.mit.edu/dumit/www/artifact-long.html

•Symbolic, Labour, Professional/Epistemological, Material, Technological, Political, Economic, Bodily/Organic, Historical, Contextual/Situated, Educational, Mythological

Presentation•More than “show and tell”•Plan ahead•From “work-in-progress” to “almost done”•“Office hour presentations”

Paper•Bring together•Sociology/anthropology of thing•Case studies

Next Week•Dant on Driver-Car•Schnapp on Moka Express•Barthes on New Citroën