Methods and Theory of Material Culture Studies
History 6202, University of West Georgia
Spring 2004
“A method based on the document is prejudiced; fated to neglect the majority of people, for they were nonliterate 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 Virginia
“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 America
I nstructor: Dr. Ann McCleary, History Department
E-mail address: amcclear@westga.edu
History Department Office: TLC 3-2111; phone 770-838-3031
Office hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 1-3:30 in Center for Public History(Pafford 207), phone for Center: 770-838-3141
Class meetings: Mondays, 5:30-8:00 p.m. in TLC 3-205
C ourse 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 our 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 have 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 so.
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.
L earning 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. history, anthropology, archaeology, folklore, art history, women’s studies, and history of technology) analyze and utilize material culture in their studies.
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 studies.
5. Students will develop and support an argument and demonstrate clear and analytical writing skills through the preparation of a written essay.
6. Students will analyze how museums and other public history venues use and interpret material culture.
R equired 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. An ** means that the book is on reserve in the Ingram Library.
Alison J. Clarke, Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, 1999.**
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave. Basic Books, 1983.**
James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life. **
Henry Glassie, Material Culture. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1999. Doubleday/Random House Publishers, revised edition.**
Katherine C. Grier, Culture and Comfort: Parlor Making and Middle-Class Identity, 1850-1930. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Press, second printing based on original museum catalog published by the Strong Museum in 1988. **
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Vintage Books, 2001.
John Michael Vlach, By the Work of Their Hands: Studies in Afro-American Folklife. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1991.**
These additional books will be on reserve in the library (along with the required readings listed above): All of these books have some readings for class.
Jules Prown, American Artifacts: Essays in Material Culture. Michigan State University Press, 2000.
Thomas J. Schlereth, ed., Material Culture in America. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press/AASLH, 1999. This book has an excellent bibliographical essay about material culture studies that may prove useful to you in your own research.**
RRobert Blair St. George, Material Life in America, 1600-1860. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988. **
Rosemary Troy Krill and Pauline K. Eversmann, Early American Decorative Arts, 1620-1800. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000. This volume has very useful information on styles for furnishings and on different types of material culture. **
C ourse Requirements:
The course will emphasize readings and research, with approximately 40% of the course grade based on readings and 60% on the research project. There will be no examinations.
Research paper (50% 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 New England furniture for an example).
The paper must also incorporate secondary sources to place your research into a broader context, 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 completed according to Kate Turabian or the Chicago Manual of Style and a complete bibliography.
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 16.
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, excessive 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 (20% 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.
C lass 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. All of the required books and other readings will be placed on reserve in the Ingram Library.
January 12: Class Introduction; Examining artifacts
January 26: 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
February 2: 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 America, 1600-1860.
E. McClung Fleming, “Artifact Study: A Proposed Model” in Thomas J. Schlereth, Material Culture Studies in America.
William B. Hesseltine, “The Challenge of the Artifact,” in Thomas Schlereth, Material Culture Studies in America.
John Trimmer, “Monuments and Myths: Three American Arches,” in Schlereth, Material Culture Studies in America.
Jennifer L. Roberts, “Lucubrations on a Lava Lamp: Technocracy, Counterculture, and Containment in the American Sixties,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
February 9: Archaeological approaches
James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten: The Archaeology of Early American Life.
February 16: 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 23 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 America.
Kevin Sweeney, “Furniture and the Domestic Environment in Wethersfield, Connecticut, 1639-1800", in Robert St. George, Material Life in America, 1600-1860.
Robert St. George, “Artifacts of Regional Consciousness in the Connecticut River Valley, 1700-1780.” in Robert St. George, Material Life in America, 1600-1860.
Rodris Roth, “Tea-Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America: its Etiquette and Equipage” in Robert St. George, Material Life in America, 1600-1860.
March 1: Folklore and ethnographic approaches
Henry Glassie, Material Culture, chapters 1-3.
March 8: 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 15: 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 America, 1600-1860.
Sara Laurel Holstein, “Sewing and Sowing: Culture Continuity in an Amish Quilt,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
March 22: No class, spring break!
March 29: Social history, popular culture, and consumerism
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.
April 5: 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 12: 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 19: 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
Weili Yi, “The Light of the Home: Dialectics of Gender in an Argand Lamp,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
April 26 Modern material culture
Alison J. Clarke, Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America.
Robyn Astelson, “Seduced by an Old Flame: Paradox and Illusion in a Late-Twentieth-Century Lucite Lighter,” in Prown and Haltman, American Artifacts
May 3:Final exam period: student presentations on research and research papers due. Papers can be turned in sooner :)