Definition of Material Culture - Term Paper Example

MATERIAL CULTURE By + Material culture is an art that is associatedwith objects. The object is attributed to both the past and present culture. The culture is made up of many disciplines that explain how material culture certain objects can be attributed to certain culture. The object own by members of the society can be an object of culture. Material culture is one of social science subject and evolves along with anthropology over time. The discipline divides the science into natural and social science; where by the natural science involves the objects of culture and the social science deals with the study of culture. Culture developed with the human advancement in technology. Technology development leads to the study of the various human cultures Kittler, Winthrop-Young, & Wutz, 1999). Art conservation deals with the objects of culture, it provides a safe and secure environment for the objects under study. The Art conservation centre has its own work ethics just like any other work environment. There are three methods of studying material culture Gregg Finleys, Fleming and Prowns Methods. Gregg Finley was an historian who came up with the methods of studying material culture in the society (Mcluhan, 1962). According to him objects as of value while studying the culture. The object of study has five attributes that should be keenly studied. The five attributes of a significance. The object material is the appearance, composition and the colour of the object. The material of the object can explain presence of some culture in that particular object. Construction of the object can reflect culture in terms of its decoration, dimension, quality of the object and fabrication. The function explains why the object was created and how it is used. Provenance explain the history of the object, the owner of the object, user of the object, where and when the object was created (Muri, 2007). The significance of the object states the importance of the object to the owners and the end users of the object. The Fleming’s methods provide operation that can be used to relate culture to certain objects. The first operation is the identification of the object; establish some unique features in the object and description of the object. The evaluation is the second operation, the object is compared with others similar object in the society to arrive at the final judgement. The third analysis is the interrelationship of the object with the culture to derive a meaning of the object in the society (Hammer & Swaffar, 2012). The final operation is the interpretation of the meaning of the object as per that particular order. The object of study must have a particular meaning in the culture. The object derives meaning from urbanization, mechanization and feminism. The method narrates the history of the object, what the object is made of, and the uses of the object. The purpose of object explains both the planned and the unplanned purpose. Prown’s method is concern with the study of material culture in the modern society. The method main interest is to study the ordinary object and derive cultural meaning associated with the object. Prown’s method uncovers hidden meaning in the object that the ordinary man cannot see out of the object. There are five features in the method; description of the object in terms of the material, iconographic and the dimension of the object. The deduction of the meaning from the object is arrived at how object does things and in what manner. The speculation feature deals with the imagination of the people concerning the object of study (Hayles, 1999). The imagination creates theories and hypothesis to be proven. The object is linked to one’s feeling and the experience to attach some emotion to the object. Research program is set to validate the hypothesis stated. The culture is arise from experience and transferred via consumer goods to the consumers. Semiotic theory deals with signs of the object, and the interpretation to deduct some meaning. When we see people in the television, films and business the attention goes to their hairstyles, clothing’s and the ornament they wear. All are objects of desire, and portrays different meaning to and notion on the personality of individuals. The location of the people explains the personality of a person. If you find a person in a room, the size, drawings and the colour of the room say a lot about the personality of people in the society. Semiotic and psychologists is also concern with people’s behaviours. Body language, gestures and the facial expression portrays the personalities of individuals in the society. Players in poker use signs of the opponent to develop winning tack ticks against their opponent. Post human is a combination of both the human and technology in the society. The post human has challenges and question the existence of culture in the society. Post humans have brought about change in the existing culture of people. Technology comes with the new culture. Peoples interacting with technology must adopt the new culture. Post human has change the way people see object and assign culture ( Dobrin 2011). The art of beauty is associated with technology rather than its culture. Post human has also affected the political environment; there is a constant conflict of interest among the stakeholders. Post human has led to capitalist society because of advancement in the technology. The designers implicate the idea of fashion in design of clothes. The designers make sure they are up to date with the information pertaining fashion (Laber-Warren, 2012). The designers of clothes want to reflect both the culture and create new culture by designing new clothes that reflect the new culture (Rudder, 2011). In recent past, the black professionals design clothes to reflect their culture. The blacks wear scarfs instead of ties; this is a reflection of the culture. The designers use the fashion trends to come up with new clothes, the clothes can be a symbol of culture. According to material culture, clothes are one of the objects that reflect the culture of a person. The Rastafarian culture has specific designs of the clothes. Their colours are red, black, green and yellow ((Phillips & Mcquarrie, 2011). Part 2 Material culture objects assist to derive culture among the individuals in possession of the object at the society. The study gives of wallets, handbags, books and pens as objects of material culture. The objects are studied in pre modern world. The object has an influence on the gender, beliefs, public behaviours and emotional attachment to the object. Handbags are one of the objects used in material culture that define the personality of women in society. For a woman to behave in feminine character she should carry a handbag. Women who walk without a handbag do not possess the feminine features, and their personalities are associated with that of men. The women also show different personality by the way they carry their handbags in busy streets of a city. The women, who are brave, carry their handbag using the left hand, and they walk without fear of being lebaled victim of crime. The women who are not brave enough, and carry with them valuable property, hold their handbags under the armpits (Mcluhan, 1962). The women, who are boastful, carry their bag using the arm to show off the type of handbag she is carrying. The car is also another object in material culture that shows the personality of a person in the society. The colour of a car tells more of an individual personality. Those who are boastful and like public attention buy extra ordinary cars with unique colours. Cool people to avoid the public attention, mostly use a black car. The car model shows the individual personality in the society, there are models that are associated with rich people and those of the normal persons. Most people buy car models that are of rich people to be associated with wealth, which they do not have. Those kinds of persons are pretenders and boastful of what they do not own. The decoration in the car also speaks a lot of the person character. People who decorate their car portray what that person value in life. If the car is decorated using footballers pictures and names, the person loves football. If the vehicle is ever clean, the owner is also clean, and the car is always in a mess the owner of the car is careless (Tilley, C. Y., Sage Publications., & Sage Ereference, 2006).. The post human invention involves the use of technology by people in the society to behave in a manner is past the human capacity. Psychopharmacology is a science that deals with the effects of drugs on the moods, thinking and the individual behaviour. The drug changes the normal functioning of the cells within the nervous system. The drug substance reacts with the human brain and changes the way a person think. The drug reacts with the receptor in the system and result to changes in the physiological and psychological functioning of the human body. The drug has change the normal way of assigning various symbols to individuals( Waters 2006). The drugs affect the expression that portrays culture in a person. The drug affects facial expression and individuals under the influence of drug can portray the opposite expression from what we know. The use of technology by human being has led to invention of new culture. The application of the cyber spacing in the post human society has affected the material culture assignment of meaning to the object. The cyber spacing creates a space of communication by people in the society (Sheumaker & Wajda, 2008). Communication in the society has made the human being in the society behave like robots. It is difficult to derive the real personality with the introduction of the communication patterns. The material culture cannot get the object to assign the culture to a person. Fashion is uses symbols to describe meaning to individuals and culture. Individuals in the society derive meaning from different aspect of fashion. The hairstyle is a symbolic of culture and portrays personality of individuals in the society. People who have locks are believe to be criminal, and cooperate word will employ such persons. The belief is a material culture, which assign the symbol of hairstyle to crime, which might not be the truth. A trainer with the locks in his or her head will not be able to train the students. The students will not pay attention on the session because of the locks in his head. The trainer might be a good person but the students prefer the one without the locks, and do not know how to teach well. The notion of hairstyles is derive from the number of criminals with the locks. The statistics of criminal investigation shows that out of four criminals there is three with the lock s in the head (Sui & Goodchild, 2003). Fashion depends on semiotic theory to derive the meaning of the object. The theory is dependent on symbols to determine the meaning. The theory of semiotic explains how the sign explain the meaning in a particular object. According to the theory, people are interpreters of fashion symbols and signs. A trainer with high heels shoes has many symbols drawn from the trainees. From one view, the trainer might be short does wearing heels to see all the individuals in the class. Some will say it is fashion to show off she knows how to work on high heel shoes. Another person can view it as boldness in the woman; women who wore high heels are bold enough to wear the heels in a training session. According to the theory, every symbol must derive the meaning from the daily activities of the day. The shoe whether heels or flat shoes serve the same purpose in the society (Scherer & Jackson, 2008). However, the type of shoe worn by people derives different meaning individuals in the society. The clothes worn by people are for the purpose keeping the body warm and protection of private parts of the body from the public. Individuals in the society wear clothes that suite his or her status in the society. People wear cloths clothes as per the expectation of the members of the society. Trainers are supposed to wear official shirts not the casual one while training. If a trainer make a mistake of going to class with a casual shirt there will be conflict of interest among the group (Tilley Sage Publications., & Sage reference, online service 2006).. Conclusion In conclusion, material culture is both a social and an historic discipline. Material culture uses symbols to assign meaning to an object. The members of upper class in the society set taste and preference in the homes. In our daily life object is almost everything from the car to the pen. All the objects have different meaning of culture in our daily life. To derive meaning to the objects, we first observe the important aspect of the object carefully, and making a small summary from the observation. Derive some other meaning using different perspectives to arrive a reasonable conclusion on the symbolic culture of the object. Read from other sources what it tell you of the object. The conclusion must be based on a wider area to arrive at a better conclusion. Material culture plays a big role in fashion and design of clothes. The way someone dresses is a reflection of the culture. Person’s clothes can earn him respect or dis respect in the society. Individuals who want to maintain their respect with the society members must learn to wear discern clothes and be ready to incur an extra cost in laundry and dry cleaning. The professions in the cooperate world are required to adhere to the company dressing code as per the company rules. Failure to follow the rules is a symbol of disrespect and careless individuals. From the mode of dressing, the personality of individuals can be derived. The person who dress well for his or profession have a good personality and respectful to the rules. The designers of clothes in the industry use culture to come up with different designs of clothes. The application of material culture has led to emergence of new fashions and designs in the clothing industry. Material culture uses object to derive the meaning. The object has both the secondary and the primary purpose. The primary function is from the planned purpose of the object, while the secondary purpose emerged from the daily usage of the object. The object also has its symbolic meaning, for example, the chair is a symbol of royalty and a symbol of beauty when made an interior decorator of the house. Individuals make different judgement basing on their own experience with the object. The judgement might be right but sometimes faulty. The individuals in society must closely study the object before making any conclusion. In material culture, determination of who own and uses the object is important to determine the meaning of the object. Material culture explains the dressing codes of the young generation in the society. The young generation dress to please the peers and be part of the peer members. Reference WATERS, B. (2006). From human to posthuman: Christian theology in a postmodern world. Aldershot: Ashgate. Dobrin, S. I. (2011). Postcomposition. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. CARDUCCI, V. (2006). Culture Jamming. Journal of Consumer Culture. 6, 116-138.. SCHLERETH, T. J. (1999). Material culture studies in America. Walnut Creek [u.a.: AltaMira Press. KITTLER, F. A., WINTHROP-YOUNG, G., & WUTZ, M. (1999). Gramophone, film, typewriter. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press. MCLUHAN, M. (1962). The Gutenberg galaxy: the making of typographic man. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul. MURI, A. (2007). Review Article: Traversing the territories: when humanists engage with biotechnology and technoscience: Eugene Thacker, The Global Genome: Biotechnology, Politics and Culture. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005. xxiii + 416pp. ISBN 0 262 20155 0, $39.95 (hbk); ISBN 0 262 70116 2, $19.95 (pbk) Marquard Smith and Joanne Morra (eds), The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006. vii + 297pp. ISBN 0 262 19530 5, $34.95 (hbk); ISBN 0 262 69361 5, $18.95 (pbk). New Media &Amp; Society. 9, 871-879. HAMMER, J., & SWAFFAR, J. (2012). Assessing Strategic Cultural Competency: Holistic Approaches to Student Learning Through Media. The Modern Language Journal. 96, 209-233. PHILLIPS, B., & MCQUARRIE, E. (2011). Contesting the social impact of marketing: A re- characterization of womens fashion advertising. Marketing Theory. 11, 99-126. Rudder, C. (2011). The Best Questions For A First Date. [online] Dating research from Okcupid. Available at: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-best-questions-for-first- dates/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015]. Laber-Warren, E. (2012). Unconscious Reactions Separate Liberals and Conservatives. [online] Scietific American. Available at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/calling-truce-political-wars/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2015]. HAYLES, N. K. (1999). How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago, Ill, Univ. of Chicago Press. MCLUHAN, M. (1962). The Gutenberg galaxy: the making of typographic man. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. TILLEY, C. Y., SAGE PUBLICATIONS., & SAGE EREFERENCE (Online service). (2006). Handbook of material culture. London: SAGE SUI, D. Z., & GOODCHILD, M. F. (2003). A tetradic analysis of GIS and society using McLuhans law of the media. Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe Canadien. 47, 5- 17. SCHERER, J., & JACKSON, S. (2008). Cultural Studies and the Circuit of Culture: Advertising, Promotional Culture and the New Zealand All Blacks. Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies. 8, 507-526. SHEUMAKER, H., & WAJDA, S. T. (2008). Material culture in America: understanding everyday life. Santa Barbara, Calif, ABC-CLIO. Read More