Material culture
[6] It is an interdisciplinary field and methodology that tells of the relationships between people and their things: the making, history, preservation and interpretation of objects.
[11] Researchers from the fields of sociology, psychology, and anthropology have also been fascinated by gift-giving, a universal phenomenon that holds emotional meaning using material culture.
[17] American anthropologist James Deetz, known for his work in the field of historical archaeology, wrote the book "In Small Things Forgotten" in 1977 and published a revised and expanded version in 1996.
He pioneered there the ideas of using neglected substances such as trash pits, potshards, and soil stains to reveal human actions.
Ian M. G. Quimby's Material Culture and the Study of American Life, written in 1978, tried to bridge the gaps between the museum world and the university and between curator and historian.
Thomas Schlereth, Professor Emeritus of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame, wrote about philosophies and methods of teaching history outside the traditional classroom.
In his book Artifacts and the American Past, Schlereth defines material culture study as an attempt to explain why things were made, why they took the forms they did, and what social, functional, aesthetic, or symbolic needs they serve.
[19] Gerd Koch, associated with the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, is known for his studies on the material culture of Tuvalu,[20] Kiribati[21] and the Santa Cruz Islands.
[26][27] With more recent societies, written histories, oral traditions, and direct observations may also be available to supplement the study of material culture.
Recently, a scientific methodology and approach to the analysis of pre-historic material culture has become prevalent with systematic excavation techniques producing detailed and precise results.
He is most known for his research on kinship and social structures, but he also studied the effect of material culture, specifically technology, on the evolution of a society.
He believed that it was crucial for an anthropologist to analyze not only the physical properties of material culture but also its meanings and uses in its indigenous context to begin to understand a society.
[35] Claude Lévi-Strauss, in the 20th century, included the study of material culture in his work as an anthropologist because he believed that it could reveal a deeper level of structure and meaning unattainable by typical fieldwork.
[36] Also in the 20th century, Mary Douglas thought that anthropology was about studying the meaning of material culture to the people who experience it.
The industry is fueled by a cycle of people visiting museums, historic sites, and collections to interact with ideas or physical objects of the past.
Others believe that the relationship and the financial stability it brings is often the element that allows curators, researchers, and directors to conserve material culture's legacy.
