Rövid leírás:

Bringing together the most significant papers on the interpretation of objects and collections, this volume examines how people relate to material culture and why they collect things.

Hosszú leírás:

This volume brings together for the first time the most significant papers on the interpretation of objects and collections and examines how people relate to material culture and why they collect things.

The first section of the book discusses the interpretation of objects, setting the philosophical and historical context of object interpretation. Papers are included which discuss objects variously as historical documents, functioning material, and as semiotic texts, as well as those which examine the politics of objects and the methodology of object study.

The second section, on the interpretation of collections, looks at the study of collections in their historical and conceptual context. Many topics are covered such as the study of collecting to structure individual identity, its affect on time and space and the construction of gender. There are also papers discussing collection and ideology, collection and social action and the methodology of collection study.

This unique anthology of articles and extracts will be of inestimable value to all students and professionals involved in the interpretation of objects and collections.

Tartalomjegyzék:

Part 1 Interpreting objects; Chapter 1 Museum objects, Susan M. Pearce; Chapter 2 The contextual analysis of symbolic meanings, IanHodder; Chapter 3 Things ain't what they used to be, DanielMiller; Chapter 4 Objects as meaning; or narrating the past, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 5 Death's head, cherub, urn and willow, J.Deetz, E.S.Dethlefsen; Chapter 6 Behavioural interaction with objects, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 7 A view of functionalism, EdmundLeach; Chapter 8 Culture as a system with subsystems, DavidClarke; Chapter 9 Theoretical archaeology: a reactionary view, IanHodder; Chapter 10 A view from the bridge, EdmundLeach; Chapter 11 Ivory for the sea woman: the symbolic attributes of a prehistoric technology, RobertMcGhee; Chapter 12 Interpreting material culture, ChristopherTilley; Chapter 13 Commodities and the politics of value, ArjunAppadurai; Chapter 14 Why fakes?, MarkJones; Chapter 15 Cannibal tours, glass boxes and the politics of interpretation, MichaelAmes; Chapter 16 Craft, M.Shanks; Chapter 17 Towards a material history methodology, R.Elliot; Chapter 18 Thinking about things, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 19 Mind in matter: an introduction to material culture theory and method, JulesPrown; Chapter 20 Not looking at kettles, RayBatchelor; Chapter 21 Home interview questionnaire, with coding categories and definitions, M.Csikszentmihalyi, E.Halton; Part 2 Interpreting collections; Chapter 22 The urge to collect, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 23 The collection: between the visible and the invisible, KrzysztofPomian; Chapter 24 Notes on the history of collecting and of museums, EvaSchulz; Chapter 25 Another past, another context: exhibiting Indian art abroad, B.N.Goswamy; Chapter 26 Collecting reconsidered, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 27 Psychological aspects of art collecting, FrederickBaekeland; Chapter 28 No two alike: play and aesthetics in collecting, BrendaDanet, TamarKatriel; Chapter 29 Of mice and men: gender identity in collecting, RussellW.Belk, MelanieWallendorf; Chapter 30 Objects of desire, SusanStewart; Chapter 31 Collecting ourselves, J.Clifford; Chapter 32 The filth in the way, M.Thompson; Chapter 33 Art museums and the ritual of citizenship, CarolDuncan; Chapter 34 ?The People's Show?, CathyMullen; Chapter 35 Leicester Contemporary Collecting Project's questionnaire, SusanM.Pearce; Chapter 36 Beyond the Odyssey: interpretations of ethnographic writing in consumer behaviour, AnnammaJoy; Chapter 37 Collectors and collecting, Russell W.Belk; Chapter 38 Why they collect: collectors reveal their motivations, RuthFormanek;