Material Cultures

The field of material culture has been historically well established but has recently enjoyed something of a renaissance. Methods once dominated by Marxist-oriented analyses, in which objects are understood as commodities, and by the study of objects as symbols are starting to give way to a more ethnographic approach to artifacts. This orientation to practice is the cornerstone of the essays presented in Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter. The diversity of these essays is mediated by their common commitment to ethnography with a material focus. Against the established practice of examining objects as mirages of media or language, Material Cultures emphasizes how the study of objects not only contributes to an understanding of artifacts but is also an effective instrument for the study of social values and contradictions.