Life of Things

Knowing an object does not mean copying it-it means acting upon it. It means constructing systems of transformation that can be carried out on or with this object. -Jean Piaget

This three quarter program is an inquiry into our relationships with material things. In our study we will draw from a variety of disciplinary perspectives to explore material things as cultural objects that speak like texts, define social networks, incite desires, and become markers of identity. We will follow the biographies of material things as they are born in factories or art studios, take on exchange values, circulate as gifts or commodities, and come to rest in museums or landfills. Exploring things - and crafting some ourselves - will teach us about our economic and social values, our selves, and our connections with the rest of the world. We will investigate objects across space and time, including Melanesian kula beads enmeshed in circuits of inter-island gift exchange, alienated African cultural property on display in European colonial museums, and global commodities like blue jeans that mutate and adapt to fit local markets and tastes.

Questions shaping the program are: How do we relate to objects in our life? How do objects embody or encode power relations? How do objects shape identities as well as mark borders between gender, sexuality, ethnicity and social class? How can we live a sustainable life, and attain a balance in our relationships with material things from psychological, social and environmental perspectives? How does making things from various materials shape our relationship to them?

In fall quarter we will explore the exchange and value of things and the distinction between gift and commodity through a range of historical and contemporary ethnographic studies. We will consider how emerging forms of biological, intellectual, and virtual property push the limits of how we think about exchange relationships and materiality. In winter quarter we will inquire into a range of things - souvenirs, heirlooms, relics, artwork and antiques - that enter collections and museums. We will weigh ethical debates over the return of cultural property and explore the politics of representing the "other" through the display of displaced artifacts. In spring quarter we will question the end of things, focusing on the wastelands, garbage pits and other spaces where objects are deposited after their owners believe their value has been exhausted.

In our exploration of material culture we will take field trips to museums, swap meets, scrap yards, shopping malls and other places of interest. Students will take an active role in building learning communities through collaborative workshops, lectures, research, writing, seminars and presentations. In addition to completing short papers, artwork and ethnographic assignments, students will develop a major project that addresses some aspect of our inquiry. Faculty will support students in conducting local ethnographic research, service learning internships, artistic work, oral history, museum exhibitions, or other modes of engagement with material culture. Awareness workshops such as yoga practice will be included. By the end of the program, students will learn key principles of cultural anthropology, ethnographic fieldwork, semiotics, museum studies and sustainability studies, and will develop potent modes of cultural critique.