Methods and Theory of Material Culture Studies
History 6202,
Spring 2006
“A method based on the document is prejudiced; fated to neglect the majority of people, for they were non-literate and, within the boundaries of literacy, to neglect the majority of people, for they did not write. Even today in societies of almost universal literacy, it is a rare soul who bequeaths to future historians a written account of his thought... How can you study a society if you attend only to the expressions of a small and deviant class within the whole?”
Henry Glassie,
Folk Housing in Middle
“Material culture is the study through artifacts of the beliefs–values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions–of a particular community or society at a given time.”
Jules David Prown, “Mind in Matter”
“Material culture...is not culture but its product. Culture is socially transmitted rules for behavior, ways of thinking about and doing things... Material culture is...that sector of our physical environment that we modify through culturally determined behavior.”
James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten
“The study of American material life is grounded in the concrete, interwoven reality of men’s and women’s environmental, economic, and cultural circumstances.”
Robert Blair St. George,
Material Life in
Instructor: Dr.
E-mail address: amcclear@westga.edu
History Department Office: TLC 3-2111; phone 678-839-6041
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-3 and Wednesdays from 1-3:30 in Center for Public History (Pafford 207), phone for Center: 678-231-3561
Class meetings: Thursdays, 5:30-8:00 p.m. in TLC 3-205
Course Description:
The phrase “material culture” is a broad one, defined in different ways by various scholars. Perhaps the simplest way to define the term is that material culture represents the “things” or the “stuff” which we create and use on a daily basis, the “material” products of a culture. These “things” could range from the clothes in your closet to the dishes in your kitchen, large and often-costly items such as our cars and homes to less-expensive mundane artifacts like pocket knives or even the contents of a kitchen trash can. Some artifacts might be stylish, and others much less so. Some might be readily available and mass-produced, while others might be heirlooms or hand-crafted items. Some artifacts denote our class and social status, while others simply help us accomplish a specific goal or even just to have fun. Most importantly, material culture tells us about a place and a time, about the people who created or used the artifacts, about change over time. Just as we create material culture, so too are we shaped by the material culture that surrounds us. As Glassie states, material culture often reveals much about a past that is difficult to study in other ways.
But the field is still fraught with challenges. How do we study material culture? Some scholars argue that the artifact can “speak,” but does it? How do we interpret what the artifact or the collection of artifacts “says”? How can material culture help us address some of the larger questions and issues that we face as historians? What are the limitations of using artifact? Have we overstated their value? Some scholars would say yes.
The study of material culture is a very interdisciplinary undertaking and benefits from the wide variety of methods and theories which different scholars have applied to their research. In this class, we will sample the ways in which scholars from different disciplines have studied material culture. I will encourage you to consider the strengths and weaknesses of these different approaches and to evaluate for yourself the utility of these methodologies for your own research. Throughout the course, we will highlight leading practitioners in the field so that you understand their contributions to the study of material culture. This class will also encourage you to do your own research utilizing material culture. Each student will undertake an original research project using primary sources and drawing on the various methodologies and theories that we study in class.
In addition to our classroom meeting times, we will be scheduling at least one field trip to analyze material culture in person, since we are losing one class day due to a state holiday.
Learning Outcomes:
1. Students will become familiar with the current scholarly literature about the methods and theories of studying material culture, with an emphasis on American artifacts.
2.
Students will be able to identify the methods by which scholars
from different academic disciplines (e.g.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret American material culture orally and in writing.
4. Students will conduct original research utilizing artifacts, historical documents related to material culture, or other types of methodologies appropriate to the field and will place their work within the context of material culture scholarship.
5. Students will develop and support an argument and demonstrate clear analytical writing skills through the preparation of a written essay.
6.
Students will analyze how museums and other public
Required Texts:
Since this is a graduate seminar, there will be considerable reading. I want this course to introduce you to a variety of perspective on material culture. However, I know that books can be expensive, so the choice about what you can and want to buy is yours. You may choose to buy the books at the bookstore or on-line, you may request them on inter-library loan, or you can read them at the Ingram Library. A double asterick ** means that the book is on reserve in the Ingram Library.
Alison J. Clarke,
Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic
in 1950s
Ruth Schwartz
Cowan, More Work for Mother:
The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave.
James Deetz,
In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life.
Henry Glassie,
Material Culture.
Katherine C.
Grier, Culture and Comfort:
Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930.
Laurel Thatcher
Ulrich, The Age of Homespun:
Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth.
John Michael
Vlach, By the Work of Their
Hands: Studies in Afro-American Folklife.
These additional books will be on reserve in the library, and specific chapters on the syllabus will be on electronic class reserve. All of these books have some readings for class.
Jules Prown,
American Artifacts: Essays in Material Culture. ISBN:
0-87013-524-4.
Thomas J. Schlereth,
ed., Material Culture Studies
in
Robert Blair St. George, Material
Life in
Rosemary Troy
Krill and Pauline K. Eversmann, Early
American Decorative Arts, 1620-1800.
Course Requirements:
The course will emphasize readings and research, with approximately 50% of the course grade based on readings and 50% on the research project. There will be no examinations.
Research paper (45% of final course grade)
Each student will write an original research paper about 15 pages in length on a topic of the student’s choice. When possible, I encourage you to use this paper as part of your thesis or thesis/project research.
In considering this project, you might think about a grouping of material culture and the questions or issues that these artifacts help you explore. Or you might come up with a question that you think you could answer using some type of material culture. Remember that the field of material culture is very inclusive; I encourage you to be as creative as you can in framing your project!
The research paper must
be based on primary research. This research could include the artifacts
themselves or it could use documents that tell us about material
culture of the past, such as wills or probate inventories, tax records, census
data, or other relevant types of records. You may also utilize oral
histories as a source for interpreting and analyzing the material
culture in question. However, material culture must be at the core of your
project. If you use artifacts in your analysis, please include photographs
or other types of illustrations to illustrate what you are studying. If you
use written documents, you might consider ways in which you could organize
your data for the reader or perhaps relate what you are finding in the written
records to the artifacts themselves (see Sweeney’s article on
The paper must also incorporate secondary sources to place your research into a broader context of material culture scholarship, both in methodology and in the topic under discussion. Students should consult at least five to eight secondary sources. You may utilize up to three sources/scholars from the readings, but you must also locate five additional sources relating to your topic. Always consider what contribution your work makes to the field and highlight that contribution in the introduction and conclusion of your paper.
Each research paper should include footnotes or endnotes, a complete bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, and other matters of style completed according to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Please note that you may not use a paper from another class to satisfy the writing assignment for this class. Any plagiarized work will result in an “F” for the entire class.
Specific instructions on the paper will be provided the second week of class.
Research paper proposal (10% of final course grade)
To keep you on target for your research paper, I am asking you to submit a two- to three-page research proposal early in the semester. In this proposal, please address the question that you hope to ask, the primary sources that you plan to use, and the value and significance of your proposed topic. Why does it need to be done? Due February 23.
Class participation (20% of final course grade)
Since this is a graduate seminar, students are expected to read the required readings in advance of the class meeting and to contribute to the class discussion. All of us will benefit if students come to class prepared. Most significantly, you will have a better class experience!
Attendance is also very important. Much of what goes on in class will be discussion, rather than lecture, and this would be impossible to “make up”. While one or two class absences will be accepted, more than two unexcused absences will lower your final course grade.
As part of your class participation, each student will bring in an example of material culture and interpret that artifact with the help of other classmates. Everyone will be assigned a specific class date for bringing in an artifact.
Weekly written assignments (25% of course grade)
Throughout the course, I will ask you to write short responses to various readings or particular discussion topics. These will be assigned one or two weeks in advance. For example, for January 26, I will ask you to write a two-page response to the book that you have read, and for February 9, your assignment will be to find a book about “decorative arts” and analyze the authors’ methods and approach.
For weeks where there is no written paper assigned, please bring a one- to two-page response to any of the readings to class. This may be hand-written or word-processed, and it is an informal writing. These comment sheets help me to understand what you are learning through the readings. The comment sheets will not be graded. If you miss class, you are still responsible for sending the comment sheet or a paper (if assigned) to me on that day or the day afterwards, either in my mailbox or via email.
Class Schedule
Please note that this schedule is subject to change (with sufficient warning!), based on our progress in the class and on student interest. I want this class to relate to the interests of all of you, and because there is so much great literature on this topic, we can make adjustments as we choose.
January 12: Class Introduction; Examining artifacts
January 19: Exploring Material Culture
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun, and come prepared to discuss her approach towards material culture and its use in historical research. Please bring a two-page, word-processed response to her methods of using material culture
January 26: Some methods of material culture studies
Jules Prown,
“Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method” in
Robert St. George, , Material Life in
E. McClung
Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model” in Thomas J. Schlereth, Material
Culture Studies in
William B.
Hesseltine, “The Challenge of the Artifact,” in Thomas Schlereth, Material
Culture Studies in
Jennifer L. Roberts, “Lucubrations on a Lava Lamp: Technocracy, Counterculture, and Containment in the American Sixties,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
February 2: Archaeological approaches
James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life.
February 9: Style and “decorative arts”: an art historical approach
“Interpreting Decorative Arts Objects” (chapter 1) and “Understanding Style” (chapter 3) and peruse one of the later chapters (7-24) in Rosemary Troy Krill and Pauline K. Eversmann, Early American Decorative Arts, 1620-1860.
Also select a book that describes “decorative arts” (e.g. furniture, ceramics, textiles, etc) and write a one- to two-page analysis of that author’s methods and approach.
February 16 Connoisseurship; Class, status, and “refinement”
“Looking at Objects” in Krill and Eversmann, Early American Decorative Arts.
Charles F.
Montgomery, “The Connoisseurship of Artifacts,” in Schlereth, Material
Culture Studies in
Kevin Sweeney,
“Furniture and the Domestic Environment in
Robert Blair St. George, “Artifacts of Regional Consciousness in the Connecticut River Valley, 1700-1780,” in St. George, Material Life in America, 1600-1860.
Robert St. George, “Artifacts of Regional
Rodris Roth, “Tea-Drinking
in Eighteenth-Century
February 23: Folklore and ethnographic approaches
Henry Glassie, Material Culture, chapters 1-3.
March 2: The craftsperson or creator
Henry Glassie, Material Culture, chapter 4.
John Michael Vlach, By the Work of Their Hands, chapters 4-6.
Michael Owen Jones, “Why Take a Behavioral Approach to Folk Objects?” in Steven Lubar and W. David Kingery, History from Things: Essays on Material Culture.
March 9: Race, ethnicity, and region
John Vlach, By the Work of Their Hands, 1-3 and 7-8
Philip D. Morgan,
“Work and Culture: The Task System and the World of Lowcountry Blacks, 1700-1880,” in St. George, Material
Life in
Sara Laurel Holstein, “Sewing and Sowing: Culture Continuity in an Amish Quilt,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
March 16: Social
Katherine Grier, Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930, chapters 1-3.
Joel Pfister, “A Garden in the Machine: Reading a Mid-Nineteenth-Century, Two-Cylinder Parlor Stove as Cultural Text,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts.
March 23: No class, spring break!
March 30: Artifacts in the age of mass production
Katherine Grier, Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930, chapters 4-7.
Lucy Souttter, “An Heirloom: Interpreting a Gilded Age Tortoiseshell Locket,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
April 6: Technology and material culture
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, chapters 1-4.
Amy B. Werbel, “The Foley Food Mill,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
Kenneth Haltman, “Reading Out to Touch Someone? Reflections on a 1923 Candlestick Telephone,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
April 13: Gender and material culture
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother, chapters 6-7.
Leslie Shannon Miller, “The Many Figures of Eve: Styles of Womanhood Embodied in a Late-Nineteenth-Century Corset,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
April 20 No class: Time to work on your research project!
April 27: Modern material culture
Alison J. Clarke,
Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s
Robyn Astelson, “Seduced by an Old Flame: Paradox and Illusion in a Late-Twentieth-Century Lucite Lighter,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
May 4: Final exam period: class dinner with student presentations on research papers