Showing papers in "Journal of Material Culture in 2000"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the "normalization" of the British freezer and define three phases in this process: an initial period oriented around the utility of preserving home produce; a second stage marked by the development of a frozen food infrastructure and the establishment of the freezer as a part of the efficient domestic economy; and a third subtle but significant redefinition of the primary benefits of freezing in terms of convenience.
Abstract: This article examines the 'normalization' of the British freezer. It defines three phases in this process: an initial period oriented around the utility of preserving home produce; a second stage marked by the development of a frozen food infrastructure and the establishment of the freezer as a part of the efficient domestic economy; and a third subtle but significant redefinition of the primary benefits of freezing in terms of convenience. Cast in their new role as 'time machines', freezers are sold as a means of managing contemporary pressures associated with the scheduling and co-ordination of domestic life. At one level, this is a story of the gradual acceptance of a relatively standardized object. Yet this narrative suggests that the freezer's promised benefits and functions change along the way. Developing this point, we argue that the normalization of the chameleon-like freezer can only be understood in the context of similarly changing systems of food provisioning, patterns of domestic practice and allied technological devices.
237 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined the ways members of pregnancy loss support groups in the US use material culture to deal with the realness problem of miscarriage, stillbirth, and early infant death and found that women and their social networks actively construct their babies-to-be and would-have-been babies as real babies and themselves as real mothers.
Abstract: This article explores the ways members of pregnancy loss support groups in the US use material culture to deal with the ‘realness problem’ of miscarriage, stillbirth, and early infant death. I examine goods purchased or made for the child-to-be during pregnancy; goods given from the child-to-be during the pregnancy; goods given to, or in the memory of, the ‘baby’ after its death; and things acquired to memorialize the child within the family. Through the buying, giving, and preserving of things, women and their social networks actively construct their babies-to-be and would-have-been babies as ‘real babies’ and themselves as ‘real mothers’, worthy of the social recognition this role entails.
152 citations
TL;DR: As people mature, appeals to nostalgia encourage a reconnection with the past by buying products united by one leitmotif; same commodity, same individual, different ages/tastes/styles/desires.
Abstract: Asked about Hello Kitty, respondents judged those interested in this ‘character good’ within a framework of freedom/self-autonomy versus coercion/compulsion. The former is associated with what may ...
99 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply Gell's theoretical ideas on both Art and Agency to the study of Trinidadian websites and examine how their contents and aesthetic forms strive to attract and trap certain surfers while escaping the attention of those who are not its intended viewers.
Abstract: This article attempts to demonstrate the value and insightful nature of the recent work of Alfred Gell through an application of his theoretical ideas on both Art and Agency to the study of Trinidadian websites. It examines both personal and commercial websites produced by Trinidadians and explores how their contents and aesthetic forms strive to attract and trap certain surfers while escaping the attention of those surfers who are not its intended viewers. Websites create an expanded space-time in which on analogy with Kula operators, their owners seek to create their fame and disperse their social efficacy.
72 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the repetitive quality of kitsch addresses a general problem of modernity, that of disembeddedness, or the undermining of personal horizons of social and cosmic security.
Abstract: In this article, an attempt will be made to elaborate a theory of kitsch that dispenses with the traditional hierarchical framework within which kitsch is often understood. Avoiding both the populist approach of cultural studies, and the elitist approach of mass culture theorists, an argument is made for a uniquely kitsch aesthetic that employs the thematics of repetition, imitation and emulation as a distinct aesthetic style. Breaking from traditional analyses of popular conventionality in the realm of taste which aligns taste habits with class identities (such as that offered by Pierre Bourdieu), it is argued instead that the repetitive quality of kitsch addresses a general problem of modernity, that of ‘disembeddedness’, or the undermining of personal horizons of social and cosmic security (a model drawn from Anthony Giddens). The basis of this argument is drawn from a reconstruction of traditional theories of kitsch, though illustrative cases are offered.
71 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on metal 'Trench art' from the Western Front between 1914 and 1939 and explore their various symbolic dimensions as souvenirs and mementoes, objectifications of loss, war trophies, and as materializations of the relationships between object and maker, men and women, the warring nations, and the living and the dead.
Abstract: 'Trench Art' is the evocative but misleading term used to describe a wide variety of objects in various media made by soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians during the First World War (1914-18) and the succeeding inter-war period (1919-39). The production of such objects appears as a widespread human response to the conditions of modern warfare, with examples coming from the Beer War and many if not most 20th century conflicts. This essay focuses on metal 'Trench Art' from the Western Front between 1914 and 1939. It offers an initial categorization of types, and explores their various symbolic dimensions as souvenirs and mementoes, objectifications of loss, war trophies, and as materializations of the relationships between object and maker, men and women, the warring nations, and the living and the dead. It is suggested that 'Trench Art' is an important and hitherto overlooked source for understanding the cultural memory of 20th century war.
54 citations
Journal Article•
40 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the problem of how to distinguish between natural and humanly modified features of the cultural landscape with reference to clitter (boulder and stone) masses in the south-west of England using the example of Leskernick hill, Bodmin Moor with its wellpreserved Bronze Age settlement.
Abstract: This article addresses the problem of how to distinguish between natural and humanly modified features of the cultural landscape with reference to clitter (boulder and stone) masses in the south-west of England using the example of Leskernick hill, Bodmin Moor with its well-preserved Bronze Age settlement. We first set out a series of criteria for distinguishing between natural and humanly placed stones on the basis of a series of formal geomorphological criteria. We then discuss the stones from an archaeological perspective setting out a series of archaeological criteria by means of which we can recognize the presence of humanly modified stones. From this basis we discuss four examples in detail. Finally we attempt to interpret the significance of the cultural modification of stone masses, previously regarded by both archaeologists and geomorphologists as being entirely natural in origin, by challenging the very culture/nature distinction for ascribing meaning on which the previous considerations are made. Whilst acknowledging that the distinction between a stone that has been moved by human agency, and one that has not, is important for interpretation this does not make it more or less culturally significant.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the Mythological Significance of Elks, Boats and Humans in North Swedish Rock Art is discussed and the Mythology of Elk and Boats is discussed.
Abstract: Animal Magic : The Mythological Significance of Elks, Boats and Humans in North Swedish Rock Art
22 citations
TL;DR: The transformation of the image of the housewife-consumer in Italian advertising during the 'economic miracle' of the late 1950s and early 1960s is described in this article, which argues that motivation research -an originally American market research technique with Freudian origins -was crucial in altering the ways in which advertisers and marketers related to women consumers.
Abstract: This article describes the transformation of the image of the housewife-consumer in Italian advertising during the ‘economic miracle’ of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Drawing on market research, professional debates and advertising campaigns it argues that motivation research - an originally American market research technique with Freudian origins - was crucial in altering the ways in which advertisers and marketers related to women consumers. Motivation research made advertisers and marketers conceive of consumers as endowed with an intrinsic desire for self realization. The qualitative methodology that it introduced also allowed the marketing profession to observe and absorb the new ways of life that were proposed by the counterculture and the women’s liberation movements of the early 1960s. Towards the early 1970s these elements blended into a distinctly ‘emancipated’ advertising discourse, a ‘commodity feminism’ where women consumers were encouraged to use consumer goods to mark off an autonomous, i...
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the Turkish State's use of the built environment to mold behaviour and how local practices modify such architectonic command sequences in the Turkish Sugar Corpo...
Abstract: This article considers the Turkish State’s use of the built environment to mould behaviour and how local practices modify such architectonic command sequences. Specifically, the Turkish Sugar Corpo...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored the context and sources for illustrations produced by Soane's studio on the theme of prehistoric monuments and raised issues relating to the interaction of monuments and follies.
Abstract: The context of, and sources for, illustrations produced by Soane’s studio on the theme of prehistoric monuments are explored. Reflecting upon the ‘embedding’ of style within the distant past (i.e. the ‘project of origins’), these tell of the changing configuration of the nation’s cultural landscape and provide further insight into the role of ruination in the architect’s work. Two out of the three images considered have ‘fantastic’ attributes and raise issues relating to the interaction of monuments and follies. Others have a direct relation with 3-dimensional model-based presentations, and the nature of the ‘translation’ of imagery between different media is also discussed.
TL;DR: In this article, the analysis of ambivalence in exchange relations between groups in the Pangia area of the Southern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea from an unusual angle: the structure and materials of a ceremonial longhouse constructed to house participants in a gift-giving occasion.
Abstract: This article approaches the analysis of ambivalence in exchange relations between groups in the Pangia area of the Southern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea from an unusual angle: the structure and materials of a ceremonial longhouse constructed to house participants in a gift-giving occasion The sponsor of the feast declared that it was to mark peace and alliance with neighbors, but one of the recipients noted that the types of wood used in the building themselves carried threatening and competitive messages encoded non-verbally Gifts of pearl shells and pork were similarly interpreted as double-sided: both to repair friendships and to declare enmities The recipients themselves risked, from their point of view, death in accepting these perilous gifts from a longhouse consisting of ‘dangerous woods’ The case study illustrates the possible disjuncture of interpretations of material acts and structures by differently positioned persons in the social arena
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the process through which space is humanized, examining in particular how this process legitimizes moral rights to property, and how performative, representational and material activities through which Aboriginal groups assert their claims to the land.
Abstract: This article draws upon landscape theory and studies of material culture to explore the process through which space is humanized, examining in particular how this process legitimizes moral rights to property. Drawing on ethnographic research in the Western Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland, it considers some of the performative, representational and material activities through which Aboriginal groups assert their claims to the land.The analysis is placed within the wider historical and political context of the land rights and environmental movements in which ownership of the peninsula is entangled. The Aboriginal community in Kowanyama has primary claims to several thousand square miles of land within and surrounding their ‘Deed of Grant in Trust’ area, but these are opposed by many local pastoralists, the National Parks service and, to some degree, tourist and environmental groups in the region. The article examines how the construction of performative and artefactual representations of an indi...
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between architecture and time is addressed, and contemporary reflections about weathering, durability and ephemerality are considered, and the possibility of a new, material-based and environmentally-conscious refiguration of the antique.
Abstract: The article addresses the relationship between architecture and time. It engages contemporary reflections about weathering, durability and ephemerality and it considers whether this line of research could not open towards new ways of picturing history. It presents an overview of interpretations of Ancient precedent from the late Antiquity to the present, and it sketches the possibility of a new, material-based and environmentally-conscious refiguration of the Antique.
TL;DR: Kavanagh, Gaynor and Frostick, Elizabeth, Making City Histories in Museums as mentioned in this paper, London: Leicester University Press, 1998. 212 pp. + illus.
Abstract: Kavanagh, Gaynor and Frostick, Elizabeth, Making City Histories in Museums. Leicester University Press, 1998. 212 pp. + illus. ISBN 07185-0030-X (hbk). Simpson, Moira, Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Era. Routledge, 1996. 294 pp. + illus. ISBN 0-415-06785-5 (hbk). Phillips, David, Exhibiting Authenticity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997. 234 pp. + illus. ISBN 0-7190-4797-8 (pbk).
TL;DR: The use of Copyright Registers by photographers and other artists provides a useful barometer of cultural assumptions over the period from the 1870s to the 1950s as discussed by the authors, and the use of copyright registries can be seen as a proxy for cultural assumptions.
Abstract: The use of Copyright Registers by photographers and other artists provides a useful barometer of cultural assumptions over the period from the 1870s to the 1950s. This paper will explore images tha...