Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Material culture'
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Rosario, Deborah Hope. "Milton and material culture." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:45542c8d-0049-49cf-8d19-6d206195d9a7.
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In contradistinction to critical trends which have rendered Milton’s thought disembodied, this thesis studies how seventeenth-century material culture informed Milton’s poetry and prose at the epistemic level and by suggesting a palette of forms for literary play. The first chapter explores the early modern culture of fruit. At the epistemic level, practices of fruit cultivation and consumption inform Milton’s imagination and his vocabulary, thereby connecting their historic-material lives with their symbolic ones. Milton further turns commonplace gestures of fruit consumption into narrative devices that frame discussions of agency, aspiration, sinful and right practice. The second chapter examines two floral catalogues to discover how they find shape through the epistemologies of flowers, ceremony, and decorative arts. Here material culture shapes literary convention, as one catalogue is found to secret ceremonial consolation in its natural ingenuousness, while the other’s delight in human physicality upsets the distinctions between inner virtue and outer ornament, faith and rite. In the third chapter, urban epistemologies of light, darkness, movement, and space are examined through urban phenomena: skyline, suburbs, highways, theft, and waterways. By interpellating contemporary debates, these categories anatomise fallen character, intent, action, and their consequences. Milton’s instinctive distaste for urban nuisances is interesting in this Republican figure and is subversive of some ideologies of the text. Discursive and material aspects meet again in the fourth chapter in a discussion of his graphic presentations of geography on the page. Usually prone to analyses of textual knowledge, they are also informed by the embodiment of knowledge as material object. Milton’s search for a fitting cartographic aesthetic for the Biblical narrative and for the rhetoric of his characters leads him to an increasing consciousness of the ideologies energising these material forms. The fifth chapter explores Milton’s engagement with forms of armour and weapons. Military preferences for speed and mobility over armour help Milton explore the difference between unfallen and fallen being. Milton also uses his inescapably proleptic knowledge of arms and armour as a field of imaginative play for representations that are both anachronistic and typological. These lead to a discussion of imitation in the mythic imagination. In each of these studies, we witness Milton’s consciousness of his temporal and proleptic location, and his attempts to marry the temporal and the pan- or atemporal. In the conclusion I suggest that Milton’s simultaneous courting of the atemporal while he is drawn to or draws on temporal material culture imply an incarnational aesthetic.
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MacIntyre, Hector. "Material Culture and Technological Determinism." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31939.
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This dissertation has two results. First, I argue that each of the two basic components of technological determinism (TD)—what I call the inexorability thesis and the autonomy thesis—are plausible claims on a naturalistic stance. Second, I argue that a normative model for the design of cognitive systems can guide the practice of cognitive engineering, e.g. the task of building cognitive aids and enhancements. TD conjoins two logically independent but empirically related claims. The inexorability thesis is the claim that technology change is an evolutionary process. I defend this claim against considerations raised by Lewens, most notably the lack of a robust account of artifact reproduction that would underwrite genuine transmission. I consider (but reject) the solution of memeticists to this problem. I find that theorists of cultural evolution, e.g. Boyd and Richerson (among others), do present a plausible response. Technologies can be said to evolve via the cumulative selective process of cultural retention. The autonomy thesis is the claim that features of human cognitive agency arise from material culture. I argue for this thesis through a consideration of the merits of Preston’s theory of material culture. Her sociogeneric approach attributes human cognitive agency to a material cultural genesis, and this approach is backed by strong anthropological evidence. Preston would not accept the thesis but she does not manage to exclude it, despite an admirable attempt to develop an account of innovation. I also consider the design of technologies in the practice of cognitive engineering and propose adopting a normative theory of factitious intellectual virtue as a model to guide design in this arena.
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Kelt, Jonathan Mark. "Material culture, temporality and meaning." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.625057.
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Shaw, Elizabeth. "Recycled Narratives: Contemporary Jewellery - Material Culture - Praxis." Thesis, Griffith University, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/376858.
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This exegesis outlines research undertaken in the studio in tandem with the study of theoretical texts along with analysis of work by contemporary artists and metalsmiths. My studio approach is framed within ethical approaches to use of material and sustainable practices in production. The use of non-precious materials in contemporary jewellery is well established as a method to critique preciousness and question value, as is the reuse and repair of component parts of existing jewellery part of a global recycle movement across many disciplines. The work created in this project aims to investigate a wider use of humble materials and broken or discarded consumer objects by investigating the potential for exploiting their symbolic power and functional possibilities through reimagining as well as repurposing as jewellery. In demonstrating that jewellery can offer a critical reflection on contemporary society this project aims to also reinvigorate the important role jewellery has played as a key conveyance at the intersection of materials, the symbolic order and social, economic and environmental values.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Queensland College of Art
Arts, Education and Law
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Roberts, Sharon Emma. "Childhood material culture and museum representations." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.427292.
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Sonnenberg, Liesl. "A comparison of the commoner material culture to that of the elite material culture at Great Zimbabwe." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25526.
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This dissertation presents the results of a study done on the area situated outside of the Outer Perimeter Wall, believed to be the commoner area at Great Zimbabwe. The methodology used in this study combined archival with artefact studies and archaeological field work. The study aimed to acquire an understanding of the uses at the commoner area at Great Zimbabwe. Focus was aimed at material culture used by the underclass to understand how it compares with that of the upper class. The comparison between the elite and non-elite areas showed that there was not a large difference between the material cultures. The ceramic analysis showed an expansion of Great Zimbabwe over time. These results are important and offer a new perspective on the social stratigraphy of the Great Zimbabwe civilization. The differences found related to objects of power, such as stone walling and soapstone artefacts; these objects only being seen in the elite areas. This study offers a new perspective in the analysis of Great Zimbabwe, and the methodology could be used as a foundation for future studies of ancient civilizations world-wide.
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Ayers, Drew R. "Vernacular Posthumanism: Visual Culture and Material Imagination." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2012. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_diss/34.
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Vernacular Posthumanism: Visual Culture and Material Imagination uses a theory of image vernaculars in order to explore the ways in which contemporary visual culture both reflects on and constructs 21st century cultural attitudes toward the human and the nonhuman. This project argues that visual culture manifests a vernacular posthumanism that expresses a fundamental contradiction: the desire to transcend the human while at the same time reasserting the importance of the flesh and the materiality of lived experience. This contradiction is based in a biodeterminist desire, one that fantasizes about reducing all actants, both human and nonhuman, to functions of code. Within this framework, actants become fundamentally exchangeable, able to be combined, manipulated, and understood as variations of digital code. Visual culture – and its expression of vernacular posthumanism – thus functions as a reflection on contemporary conceptualizations of the human, a rehearsal of the posthuman, and a staging ground for encounters between the human and the nonhuman. Each chapter of this project begins in the field of film studies and then moves out toward a broader analysis of visual culture and nonhumanist theory. This project relies on the theories and methodologies of phenomenology, materialism, posthumanism, object-oriented ontology, actor-network theory, film and media studies, and visual culture studies. Visual objects analyzed include: the films of Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, and Krzysztof Kieślowski; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997); the film 300 (2006); the TV series Planet Earth (2006); DNA portraits, the art of Damien Hirst; Body Worlds; human migration maps; and remote surgical machinery.
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Philp, Jude. "Resonance : Torres Strait material culture and history." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.411074.
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McGrew, William Clement. "Chimpanzee material culture : implications for human evolution." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2016.
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The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes, Pongidae) among all other living species, is our closest relation, with whom we last shared a common ancestor less than five million years ago. These African apes make and use a rich and varied kit of tools. Of the primates, and even of the other Great Apes, they are the only consistent and habitual tool-users. Chimpanzees meet the criteria of working definitions of culture as originally devised for human beings in socio-cultural anthropology. They show sex differences in using tools to obtain and to process a variety of plant and animal foods. The technological gap between chimpanzees and human societies living by foraging (hunter-gatherers) is surprisingly narrow, at least for food-getting. Different communities of chimpanzees have different tool-kits, and not all of this regional and local variation can be explained by the varied physical and biotic environments in which they live. Some differences are likely customs based on non-functionally derived and symbolically encoded traditions. Chimpanzees serve as heuristic, referential models for the reconstruction of cultural evolution in apes and humans from an ancestral hominoid. However, chimpanzees are not humans, and key differences exist between them, though many of these apparent contrasts remain to be explored empirically and theoretically.
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Bolland, Charlotte. "Italian material culture at the Tudor court." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2012. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/26963.
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This thesis analyses the means by which items of Italian material culture came into the possession of the Tudor monarchs. The different modes of acquisition provide the structure for an investigation into Anglo-Italian relations during the sixteenth century. Although the items that came to England took many forms a synthesising approach is made possible by the fact that the 'biographies' of the objects which have been selected all share a common element - they reached England and were owned by the Tudor monarchs as a result of direct contact with Italian individuals. As a result, disparate items such as glass, armour, books, textiles and horses can be discussed as part of a broader whole in which elements of one culture travelled to another. This is not a discussion of the developing dominance of Italian culture over Western Europe during the sixteenth century, for, although the adjective 'Italian' carried clear connotations in late sixteenth-century England it appears to have been rarely used in relation to material culture. Instead it is a study of the appreciation of technical skill and the attempts that were made to appropriate it, which in turn provides a point of access to the life histories of the Italians who came to England in the sixteenth century and the way in which their interaction with the highest levels of the court played a role in shaping the idea of Italy and the Italian in England.
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Kuritsky, Orit. "Transformational tales : media, makeovers, and material culture." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46660.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2009."February 2009."
Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-101).
This thesis probes into current American makeover culture, thorough three detailed case studies that represent an increasing confluence of commerce, entertainment, and, at times, spirituality. Each of the chapters is devoted to a niche media property, or genre, dedicated to the domestic sphere. The first chapter focuses on the genre of home decorating TV shows and practices of their consumption. The second centers on a single television program - TLC's What Not to Wear, and the interpretative activities it provokes among viewers. The third chapter examines the FlyLady - a transmedia property with a strong internet base, described by its founder as a "behavior modification system" that coaches its subscribers in getting their houses in order. This study was driven, among other things, by the following questions: as the 'commodity frontier' gets increasingly intermingled with our daily lives, with the help of increasingly pervasive media, how do certain communities respond, and with what methods of meaning-making? What draws audiences to engage with media properties so intermingled with commerce in the first place? And, what constitutes these properties' entertainment value as well as the other values audiences find in them? The answers vary with each case study, yet, there are many commonalities pertaining to meanings associated with consumer goods in late capitalism. The media properties described here capitalize on the movement of meaning from culture through consumer goods to individuals. At the same time these three chapters exemplify many cases of redirecting, filtering, and damming up the flow of meaning on the part of viewers and subscribers.
by Orit Kuritsky.
S.M.
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Douny, Laurence. "A praxeological approach to Dogon material culture." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2007. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1445424/.
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Grounded in long-term fieldwork, this thesis develops an ethnography of two aspects of Dogon material culture: the Dogon landscape and the Dogon habitation, both of which are defined as containers. The examination of these two discrete metaphorical and material epistemologies, which are conceptualised as 'skin envelopes', seeks implicit forms of worldviews that are objectified in their materiality. In other words, the research focuses on the expressions of a daily generative cosmology as it is grounded in pragmatic, material and routine embodied activities that relate to the 'making' and 'doing' of these two forms of container. Framed within an Anthropology of Techniques, the study employs a combined praxeological and phenomenological approach entailing the participant observation of body-kinetic and sensory experience of containers. In addition, observations of the body movements involved in the making and storing of things in the compound expose the containers in a visual sequence called 'chaine operatoire' that also constitutes a frame of analysis, one devised through the recording of the manufacturing and use of the containers. Thus, through an empirical, descriptive, reflexive, and processual approach to Dogon containers and related worldviews, my research elaborates theoretical perspectives on a Dogon philosophy of containment that is defined within a materiality perspective. In doing so, I demonstrate that particular local ways of 'being-in-the-world' or 'being-at-home in a world container' are generated through the material qualities of the Dogon landscape, or cosmoscape, and the domestic sphere of the compound. These operate through a gathering process and boundary-making devices that create the inside/outside locales in which people dwell and which generate a sense of ontological security in a particular scarce environment.
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Korwin-Pawlowski, Wendy. "Material Literacy: Alphabets, Bodies, and Consumer Culture." W&M ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1499450053.
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This dissertation posits that a new form of material literacy emerged in the United States between 1890 and 1925, in tandem with the modern advertising profession. A nation recalibrating the way it valued economic and cultural mass consumption demanded, among other things, new signage – new ways to announce, and through those announcements, to produce its commitment to consumer society. What I call material literacy emerged as a set of interpretive skills wielded by both the creators and audiences of advertising material, whose paths crossed via representations of goods. These historically situated ways of reading and writing not only invited Americans to interpret a world full of representations of products, but also to understand – to read – themselves within that context. Commercial texts became sites for posing questions about reading behavior more generally, and they connected members of various professions who stood to benefit from that knowledge. In this dissertation, I explore how reading and consumption converged for advertising experts, printers, typographers, and experimental psychologists. Despite their different occupational vantage points, their work intersected around efforts to understand how modern Americans decoded printed texts, and how this behavior might be known and guided. To establish their professional reputations, the authors I study positioned themselves as being uniquely capable of observing and interpreting the behavior of readers. The body served as a key site, and metaphor, for their inquiries – a means of making both literacy and legibility material.
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Fernandez-Llorente, Esther. "Material morality : success, material culture and the realist novel, 1848 to 1883." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2015. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/396524/.
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This thesis explores how the Victorian concept of success – fundamental to Victorians’ understanding of themselves as such – was characterised and problematised by the demonstration of moral worth through material wealth. Critics, including David Trotter, ask ‘under what generic conditions have objects appeared as objects in a literary text?’ (Trotter 2008). I argue that between the 1840s and 1880s it is frequently the reflection of the discourse of success and failure in society, reflected through objects, that gives material things symbolic value within plot and form of realist novels, where success and failure are persistent themes. I analyse gender roles and the circulation of objects to uncover the instabilities of Victorian characterisations of success. Focus within Victorian society on the material qualities of objects and the sense of permanence that they could create led, I argue, to the creation of a Victorian ‘Reality Effect’ (Barthes 1968). Things were emptied of meanings created through their production or circulation in order to signify the moral and material success of their current possessor through an ostensibly uncomplicated materiality which was nonetheless deeply unstable. I suggest that the exhibitionist, performative nature of this culture of success offered a potentially powerful role for middle-class women, which realist novelists challenged on moral and political grounds while making use of its aesthetic. My three chapters trace reflections of this discourse in arenas from the triumphalist ‘public’ sphere of the Great Exhibition to the ostensibly ‘private’ sphere of the home. I evaluate Vanity Fair, Great Expectations, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, Villette and The Portrait of a Lady in particular, but allude to other novels to prove the range and depth of the theme, as well as works by Thomas Carlyle, Karl Marx, and John Ruskin. Through their attitude to Victorian material culture, I attempt to see, as Dehn Gilmore puts it, ‘not what but rather how the Victorians saw’ in this culture of intensely moralised display. This reveals the conflicted attitudes of Victorian realist novelists to the culture of success and its role in the moral, economic and social challenges of Victorian culture.
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Ysselstein, Geraldine Marion. "East German material culture : building a collective memory." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/31499.
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One way of remembering life as it was lived in the German Democratic Republic
(GDR) is through everyday objects. This thesis looks at the Alltagsgeschichte (history of
everyday life) to understand the interaction between the East German state and society
through material culture. Museums have collected East German material objects and
popular culture with the help of the internet and television has assisted to both preserve
and re-imagine the memories of the past.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the cultural and economic significance of
material culture of the German Democratic Republic both before and after 1989. It seeks
to understand, how and why ex-GDR consumer objects have emerged as new historical
markers of the socialist experience and collective memory. Additionally, the thesis
explores whether East Germany, a socialist country that was despised for its poor quality
and quantity of consumer goods can be remembered after the fall of the Berlin Wall as a
genuine consumer society.
While the GDR no longer exists, its legacy is still very much alive in the renewal
and revival of a number of significant material objects. It has even manifested itself into
what is called Ostalgie, nostalgia for all things from the former GDR, including such
items as the Trabant (an East German car), the Ampelmannchen (traffic light figure) and
Florena body lotion.Arts, Faculty of
Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of
Graduate
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Jay, Phyllida. "The material culture of ethical and sustainable fashion." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.675416.
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Armstrong, Pamela. "Byzantine and Ottoman Torone material culture as history." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.599931.
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This work concerns the results of excavations that took place at Torone, on the southern tip of the central peninsula of the Chalkidiki region of northern Greece. It looks at two castles on the site, remnants of which were standing when the excavations began, and the material culture associated with them. Particular attention is paid to the ceramics, and their pJace within the ceramics of the region. With its location on the very edge of Europe, looking across the Aegean to Asia, Torone is a suitable vehicle for casting an eye round the region at the Byzantine and Ottoman archaeological framework into which the excavations there fit. Modern political divisions mask the former political, cultural, and socia-economic structures of the countries that encompass the north Aegean and its islands. While much archaeological work is being conducted, there is a tendency for it to be carried out in isolation so that, for instance, recent work on the Troad does not consider what is happening in Bulgarian or Greek Thrace, yet they are connected. To this end a study of the Thraco-Macedonian area is timely since so much evidence has recently been made available. The present work attempts to synthesize archaeological studies in Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey for the late Byzantine and Ottoman periods. At the centre sits Torone which is the key to drawing this information together .
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Tacchi, Jo Ann. "Radio sound as material culture in the home." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1997. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1317663/.
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This thesis is an anthropological exploration of the contemporary role and use of radio sound in the home in Bristol, a city in the south west of England. Based on qualitative research, and taking an ethnographic approach, this study contributes to a growing field within social anthropology: the study of mass media. After establishing the ways in which the radio industry in the UK researches and constructs radio audiences, this thesis examines how academic research on audiences has operated in Britain. It is demonstrated how this thesis relates to, and is different from both of these perspectives. Radio sound is approached as a part of the material culture of the home. It is seen to contribute to domestic soundscapes. The medium of sound is investigated, and it is shown that radio sound has particular qualities that make it well suited to domestic, everyday life. It is revealed as aiding in the creative constitution of affective dimensions of the self in society. Domestic relationships, and the role of radio sound and affect are explored. Notions of intimacy and the role of fantasy in domestic relationships are investigated. Radio sound's role in mood creation for individuals in the home is then examined, and the notion of affective rhythms established. Radio sound's connecting powers are then given some attention; how radio sound helps to make links across time and space. Memories and nostalgia are shown to operate in creative and integrated ways in domestic contexts through the medium of sound. Finally, it is concluded that cultural knowledge and experience take place in large part in the sensory and affective dimensions of everyday life.
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Reindl, Eva Maria. "On the developmental origins of human material culture." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2017. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/7853/.
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Material culture – tools, technology, and instrumental skills – has allowed humans to live in almost every habitat on earth. This thesis investigates the developmental roots of human material culture by examining basic tool-use skills and cultural learning abilities in young children. The introduction presents the concepts of the Zone of Latent Solutions (Tennie, Call, & Tomasello, 2009), cumulative culture, and Vygotsky’s (1978) theories as the theoretical background for the following five experiments. Chapter 2 identifies a list of tool-use behaviours that children can invent individually and thus represent an ontogenetic and phylogenetic basis of human tool culture. Chapter 3 extends this list by several behaviours involving the use of two tools in combination (Associative tool use). Chapter 4 focuses on a cultural behaviour that children can only acquire socially. It uses an adapted version of the spaghetti tower task (Caldwell & Millen, 2008a) to study whether children can copy a material cultural product that they could not have invented on their own and whether they can do so without action information. Chapter 5 uses the same task to investigate whether groups of children can produce a ratchet effect. The discussion summarizes the findings and presents limitations and directions for future research.
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Flavin, Susan. "Consumption and material culture in sixteenth-century Ireland." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.550301.
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This thesis argues that Irish consumption underwent major changes over the course of the sixteenth century, based primarily on evidence from eleven annual Bristol 'particular' accounts and Port Books. The study uses the customs data as a statistical framework on which to establish how, why and to what extent patterns of consumption changed in Ireland. The available qualitative evidence, including wills, archaeological evidence, pictorial evidence, contemporary literature and legislation are considered alongside the quantitative data to examine who was consuming the increasing range and volume of commodities that were imported into Ireland from Bristol and what changing consumption patterns reveal about the nature of Ireland's economy, society and culture during this period. The thesis also shows how the Exchequer customs accounts can be used to shed light on the changing consumption patterns / material culture of a pre-consumer society, with the intent of revealing the potential value of this source for consumption historians. This work contributes to the current historiography in a number of important ways. It shifts the chronological focus of consumption studies from the conventional eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the sixteenth century, thus illustrating that marked changes in consumption can occur even in the most unlikely of pre-industrial societies. Also, by focusing on Ireland during this critical period, the lead up to the Elizabethan re-conquest, the thesis shows the extent to which changes in consumption habits map onto major political and social changes, thereby shedding light on the impact of colonisation and conquest on the acquisition, and interpretation of everyday. goods. The study also makes a distinctive methodological contribution to consumption historiography, which currently suffers from a distinct lack of quantitative based studies.
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Anderson, Gavin. "Andriesgrond revisited : material culture, ideologies and social change." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/19515.
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Bibliography: pages 127-137.The original aims of this thesis were to analyze all the material remains from the previous excavations and collate all written reports on Andriesgrond Cave. Only one article has been written on Andriesgrond Cave (Parkington 1978), while several articles have referred to single unpublished reports or additional projects. Artefacts are analyzed and grouped according to their relevant chapters, and in the conclusion an interpretation of these finds is given in conjunction with social psychological theory of stress coping strategies and inter- and intragroup processes.
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Good, Katherine L. "Adaptive Re-use:Interventions in an Existing Material Culture." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1282575826.
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Ion, Sabina A. "Identity and Material Culture in Seleucid Jebel Khalid." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin147981964305723.
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Slade, Mary Ann Barbara Carleton University Dissertation Sociology and Anthropology. "Sleeping beauty, the material culture of Tsimshian Shamans." Ottawa, 1994.
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Hourigan, Sally. "Clothing, Mothers and Daughters: A Material Culture Study." Thesis, Griffith University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/367488.
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This thesis contributes a sociological treatise of clothing to the multi-disciplinary area of material culture studies. In the context of the adult mother-daughter relationship, it aims to account for first person experiences with the materiality of clothing as these intersect with women’s personal and collective narratives. This thesis thereby explores the intersection of object and interpersonal relationships in a situated and contextualised manner. To achieve this end, a user based methodology is designed and executed to allow for women’s first person accounts of clothing individually and collectively. Utilising this methodological approach avoids those observer based assumptions that arise from the semiotic examinations of clothing that flood the sociological literature. Furthermore, this is the first comprehensive study to account for clothing as it appears in the adult mother-daughter relationship from the perspective of both, mother and adult daughter. Considering clothing as an important object of investigation in the lives of women forces us to rethink traditional accounts of such research pursuits as frivolous or unworthy of attention within the academy (Crane and Bovone 2006). A series of four findings chapters are presented in this thesis that work to provide a marriage of first person and collective mother-daughter narratives to a discussion of the materiality of clothing.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Humanities
Arts, Education and Law
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Vasey, April Jean. "Seneca Hair Combs as Material Culture: A Study." W&M ScholarWorks, 1991. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625652.
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Carvalho, Naor Franco de [UNESP]. "Biblioteca Traumann: memória, cultura material e construção identitária." Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/148566.
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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
A presente dissertação visa a análise das construções identitárias e de memória de Michael Traumann e sua família, por meio da Biblioteca Traumann, a observar as práticas culturais e visões de mundo que ela manifesta. Essas questões são problematizadas a partir de seu enquadramento social e histórico, no qual desenvolveu o conjunto das vivências da família. Por meio de seu microcosmo, foi observado o esforço e a tentativa de (re)construir, em seu exílio, uma cultura alemã e europeia juntamente com a brasileira. Portanto, esta pesquisa apoia-se na análise da materialidade da Biblioteca, entendendo-a como expressão do contexto social em que ela foi formada. Dessa forma, a enquadramos como produto e produtora de cultura, e como lugar de memória. A partir dos livros presentes em sua composição, problematizamos o relacionamento entre suas leituras e seu contexto social. Além disso, por meio da investigação da Biblioteca Cidadã e de algumas produções textuais serão questionados os posicionamentos de Michael Traumann como guardião de uma cultura que temia a decadência e de uma memória familiar voltada ao elitismo cultural.
This research tries to analyze the identity and memorie constructions of Michael Traumann and his family, through the Traumann’s Library, and to observe the cultural practice and world visions that it shows. These questions will be problematized from his social and historical place, in which he has developed his family context. Through his microcosm, we will be observe his effort and his try to (re)build, in his volunteer exile, a German, European and Brazilian culture. Therefore, we will consider as acculturated/acculturatingand as a memory place. Next, will be questioned Michael Traumann’s positions as a keeper of a culture that was afraid of a decadency and of a family memory turned to the culture elitism.
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Pringle, Wendy Suzanne. "Chorioallantoic membrane culture : its potential for toxicity assessment and its limitations for skeletal tissue culture." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.328538.
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Van, Wormer Heather. "Ideology in all things material culture and intentional communities /." online access from Digital Dissertation Consortium access full-text, 2004. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?3129552.
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Gumbley, Warren, and n/a. "A comparative study of the material culture of Murihiku." University of Otago. Department of Anthropology, 1988. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20070619.111844.
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This thesis is an attempt to assess the degree of differentiation between two regions, Otago and Southland, to be found in the styles of four types of artefact; Bird-spear points, One-piece fish-hooks, Composite hook points, Adzes. In order to assess the significance of these differences the comparison has been made not only between the two regions mentioned above but also with a set of samples from the northern North Island used as a bench-mark.
The data has been collected in the form of non-metrical (presence/absence) and metrical (continuous or ratio-type) variables specific to each artefact type. The method of analysis of the data is concerned with the study of the relative frequencies of these ranges of variables. This is supported by Chi� and Student�s T tests.
As well as seeking to establish the degree of differentiation between the material cultures of the regions the interpretation also seeks to distinguish between causal factors for these differences (for example, variations in functional requirements, differing or limited access to material types, etc.).
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Holt, Timothy James Peter. "Material culture : an inquiry into the meanings of artefacts." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1996. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/2313/.
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The main purpose of the following inquiry is to emphasise the importance of a phenomenon long neglected by the majority of the human sciences, the artefact; each one of us, no matter what age, sex or culture, is in contact with artefacts every moment of our lives yet despite this they have received scant attention. The study begins by outlining a definition of the artefact, highlighting those characteristics which, in combination, ensure its centrality to social life before, through a discussion of Popper's ideas, proceeding to see how material culture can be conceptualised as meaningful. In order to understand how meaning becomes attached to the artefact the notion of objectification will be analysed and, consequently, so shall the importance of both the type of activity and the physical nature of the materials involved in the artefact's production. Picking up on the theme of materiality this aspect of material culture will be shown to pose major problems to any interpretation of the artefact along semiological lines; language and material culture are evinced to possess fundamentally distinct characteristics which make comparisons between them far from straightforward. These differences will be analysed further, concentrating specifically on the role of context in the establishment of meaning. This leads on to the proposal that our understanding of artefacts can occur on three levels; three forms of knowledge are thus described of which a linguistically formulated type constitutes just one kind. The penultimate chapter tackles the ways in which artefacts affect us, how they are active elements in our relationships with them; therefore, a dialectical position is postulated in which both artefacts and agents take part. Finally, the study concludes by stressing some of its wider implications and suggests a few of the practical situations to which it can be applied.
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Hohti, Paula Sofia. "Material culture, shopkeepers and artisans in sixteenth-century Siena." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.426267.
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Gaydarska, Bisserka Ivanova. "Landscape, material culture and society in South East Bulgaria." Thesis, Durham University, 2004. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3052/.
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The PhD study focuses on long-term settlement histories in the late prehistory of South East Bulgaria, based upon three contrasting microregions. Two of them have been destroyed by intensive coal mining, which has necessitated the application of GIS as a rescue tool to reconstruct the landscape. The third, undestroyed microregion was included in the study to enable the comparison of settlement patterns in three neighbouring valleys. The main research aims are the social and economic aspects of the human/landscape interrelation, as well as the patterns of change and continuity from the initial occupation at the beginning of the Neolithic until the end of the Late Bronze Age. Along with the GIS technique, which proved to be a relevant analytical tool, a set of modern interpretative modes in archaeology was applied to achieve the research targets. The general and specific approaches in the study are prompted by the state of the primary data, which but rarely allows precise contextual analysis.As a result of the introduction of the concepts of landscape archaeology and social practices in the studies of Bulgarian late prehistory, it was possible to establish crucial links between the identity of people, places and objects. The identification of a suite of social practices has integrated the Bulgarian evidence in a broader context of human development and has contributed to the radical re-interpretation of most of the current explanations of the evidence at the study area. The reconstruction of past landscapes in the three microregions, together with the newly reconciled concepts of landscape and environment, have facilitated the reconstruction of past settlement patterns, resource potential and inter-site transport networks. Through the evaluation and re-interpretation of site evidence for all settlements and burials, it was possible to make a comparative interpretation of diachronic changes in settlement, society, material culture and landscapes.
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Boksmati, Nadine Tarek. "Hellenisation deconstructed : space, material culture and identity in Beirut." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.612937.
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Mikkel, Bille. "Negotiating protection : Bedouin material culture and heritage in Jordan." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2009. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/16121/.
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This thesis examines protection against risks as material and social phenomena among the Ammarin tribe in Petra – a settled Bedouin community in southern Jordan. By examining the active role of material culture that is often disregarded in risk studies, the thesis discusses how protective strategies are entangled in cultural, religious, and national identities. Using ethnographic methods, I investigate protection against selected risks: harm from evil eyes, violation of domestic sanctity, and cultural heritage dilapidation. Protection against these risks is examined through studies of architecture, the social use of luminosity, prophylactic items, saint veneration, Qur’anic items, and heritage production. The thesis challenges the preoccupation with “meaning” in material culture studies, by focusing on conceptualizations of “presence” and “absence” as equally important to protective efficacy. Some informants, for example, adopt an orthodox scriptural Islamic approach to protection and denounce certain material registers as un-Islamic and materialistic leftovers from an ignorant past, and rather prescribe Qur’anic remembrance. For other informants the very physicality of such contested strategies are confirming their efficacy, and act as material anchors for negotiating Bedouin identities in response to a rapid transformation from nomadic pastoralists to sedentary wageworkers. The tensions surrounding the materiality of protection, along with the role of the past in the present is further investigated through the contested public representations of Ammarin culture, along with a detailed study of the process leading to the protection of Bedouin culture by UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. The overall conclusion of this research is that negotiating efficacious protection against perceived risks, is about actively taking a stance on senses of exposure, vulnerability and uncertainty towards the people, places and things that are cherished. These strategies simultaneously act as potent public exposure of social, religious, and national moral identities that may empower, exclude, or ostracize people.
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Kim, Koni Cecilia. "Korea as seen through its material culture and museums." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31151.
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Since the 1990s, South Korean institutions have actively engaged in providing grants for the establishment of permanent and independent Korean galleries in renowned museums abroad. The point of departure of this thesis is to provide insights into this recent serial pattern, focusing on the notion of Korea. This is based on the belief that these events should be understood as the outcomes of large-scale historical processes.;In this thesis, the notion of 'Korea' is taken as the point of convergence between the three major agents: people (i.e. Koreans and others), Korean material culture, and museums. The thesis aims to explore the nature of the three agencies and their interaction in relation to the notion of Korea, by examining how Korean people came to understand their identity as being Korean in relation to other, different such identities, and to their material culture and museums; how other people understood Korea and Korean material culture; and how far both Korean and other people's perceptions of the relationship between the notion of Korea and Korean material culture has influenced the museum field. This will lead to an understanding of South Korean efforts to open Korean galleries abroad.;The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter Two explores the notions of Korea and Korean identity. Chapters Three to Five follow the chronological framework of Korean history, Chapter Three dealing with the period from the second half of the nineteenth century to 1910, Chapter Four with that up to 1945, and Chapter Five with that up to the contemporary period. Each chapter attempts to investigate the points made above from a historical perspective. Finally, Chapter Six considers some emerging issues concerning Korean identity in South Korea, and the potential roles of museums and Korean material culture.
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Han, In-Sung Kim. "Islamic material culture in medieval Korea and its legacy." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2016. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/26513/.
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Eastop, Dinah. "Stuff happens : a material culture approach to textile conservation." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2009. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/169895/.
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Textile conservation, defined here as the preservation, investigation and presentation of textiles, is often viewed largely as a technical and aesthetic problem. This research develops an alternative view by understanding objects as being subject to both material and social change. The dynamic aspects of this material and social process is emphasised as ‘stuff happens’. This research proposes, and provides evidence for, a material culture approach to textile conservation, and demonstrates its development and application. An analysis of case studies shows how the material and the social interact at the point of assessment and intervention. Examination of the material aspects of textile conservation reveals that social values influence decision-making. Values held at the time of conservation are shown to depend on the categories used. Investigation of these categories demonstrates that any anomalous quality of the textile undergoing conservation allows for contestation of social values. As values change over time, analysis of each conservation assessment and intervention reveals a comparison of values held at different times viewed retrospectively. The resulting approach is centred on the interaction between things, persons and language where each mediates relations of the others. It is argued that this material culture approach enhances understanding of the dynamic material and social environment of textile conservation principles and practices.
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Thorpe, Ruth. "Elite women and material culture in Ireland, 1770-1840." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2018. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/elite-women-and-material-culture-in-ireland-17701840(051f45b2-20fd-411c-9dab-d549b528d4d1).html.
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Through an extensive exploration of the archives of Irish estate houses, the thesis explores the involvement of women in the architecture and design of buildings, rooms and furniture. It documents the interest which women took in drawing and designing buildings and the layout of rooms. It also looks at the involvement of elite women in the consumer revolution of the late eighteenth century and their purchases of furniture, carpets and wall paper in Ireland, England and further afield. A final chapter looks at women's emotional investment in objects which they willed mainly to female relatives. The thesis was examined in November 2017 and was enthusiastically passed by the examiners who recommended publication with very few editorial changes.
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Vigo, Laura. "Cultural diffusion and identity : material culture in northwest China, II and I millennia BCE." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2004. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28774/.
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Chinese North-western Zone designates the border areas of Northern China, including Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi and Shanxi, inhabited by semi-nomadic and nomadic groups in prehistoric times. The term denotes a broad geographic horizon conceivable as a multitude of cultural phenomena sharing a common material 'language', yet inferences on ethnic affiliation have been hitherto poorly grounded and difficult to ascertain. This work attempts to clarify some of the cultural phenomena occurred in the area, through a contextualised analysis of the available archaeological material. A methodological framework placing proto-historical material culture into 'context' is first enunciated and then employed in the investigation of various aspects of material expression belonging to different 'cultural horizons', from Siba-Huoshaogou, Yanbulake, Zhukaigou, Shajing and Chawuhu, to Alagou, Yanglang and Ordos. The data thus exposed provide clues on funerary behaviour, on patterns of consumption and social constructs, on stylistic and typological variation in ceramic productions, on metals and their social role, on craft specialisations and artistic expressions. Not only bronze and pottery objects are analysed from the stylistic and - when possible - the technological point of view, but also their relationship with 'alternative' types of material evidence (such as various perishable media) and with the contingent space are considered. Attention is further devoted to artefactual productions, ranging from bronze and iron casting to gold and silver metal-smithing. In the absence of contemporary written sources, the bulk of information comes primarily from archaeological reports. Yet manifold are the lines of evidence gathered. All these elements eventually contribute not only to discriminate similar modes of social negotiation such as gender and authority, indirectly reflecting expressions of ethnical affiliation, but also to assess both the degree of conscious cultural interaction and the extent of demic diffusion between Central Asia, Southern Siberia and China during the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE.
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Passon, Jerry Walter. "The Corvette in Literature and Culture: Material Object and Persistent Image." OpenSIUC, 2010. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/123.
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This study examines the Corvette, an automobile with a distinct place in American literature and culture. For more than fifty years, the Corvette has been in the process of becoming what is described as an "icon," although this progress has never been satisfactorily approached and explained. Why this particular machine has not just survived, but come to be recognized--by and large by most if not all Americans--as the signifier of various virtues (and some vices) is a question of some significance: in analyzing the reasons for the Corvette's long life and success as an overwhelmingly positive and distinctively American car, we look at the literature and culture of the United States. What this reveals is a complex web of ideas and attitudes that centers on one thing--a material object with six different forms over fifty years, yet one that has always retained its identity and power to signify. The approach here is thematic rather than historical. As a popular subject, the Corvette already has historians who look at it as a tangible thing that can be described, measured, and defined. My assignment is different: through the lens of critical theories, several of them, and a wide range of materials--film, novels, songs, and more--I seek to discover some essential aspects of the car that make its image dynamic and permit it to evolve over time. This is not an easy process; it has demanded an open mind to materials not often looked at in an English dissertation. The Corvette and its image are described in four areas and a conclusion: * The Corvette: the Empty, the American, and the Deadly Signifier (the original that becomes America's image of itself and the danger of speed and technology out of control) * The Image of Potency: the Corvette, Males, and Minorities (aggressive sexuality, African-American males, and male domination) * Women, Sex, and Identity as Power: the Corvette, Baddest Mother of Them All (phallic females, the car as sexual power and identity) * Corvette as Art: the Expressive Image (the car's own self-reflexive nature, the automobile as fashion--belonging ["I stand out, yet I belong"] and sense of self--and its presence in "art") * The Corvette: Image and Object
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Leodoro, Marcos Pires. "Educação Científica e Cultura Material - os artefatos lúdicos -." Universidade de São Paulo, 2001. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/48/48133/tde-19042007-113959/.
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A fusão de conhecimentos tecnológicos e científicos na produção dos objetos industrializados compõe o cenário da cultura material contemporânea. Este trabalho propõe abordar os objetos industrializados como instrumentos pedagógicos da educação científica, colocando em evidência as relações entre conhecimento, inventividade, concepções estéticas e o imaginário científico e tecnológico da sociedade contemporânea. A estratégia de exploração dos objetos industrializados como artefatos lúdicos ocorre mediante a manipulação dos mesmos, de modo a evidenciar suas propriedades formais, promovendo uma modificação didática da sua funcionalidade original, concebida no design, ou construindo novos artefatos com os materiais disponíveis no cotidiano circundante. Essa estratégia pressupõe a educação científica como prática pedagógica voltada à formação do cidadão com participação ativa na sociedade, superando a condição de consumidores passivos de mercadorias. Como subsídio à pratica que propomos, fazemos uma análise da concepção mecanicista da natureza, apontada como um dos principais elementos constitutivos da atual sociedade tecnocientífica.The fusion of technological and scientific knowledge in the production of industrialized objects compose the setting of the contemporary material culture. The proposal of this work is to tackle the industrialized objects as pedagogical instruments of scientific education, emphasizing the relations amongst knowledge, inventiveness, aesthetics conceptions and the scientific and technological imaginary of contemporary society. The strategy of exploration of the industrialized objects as playful artifacts happens in view of the manipulation of these objetcs, emphasizing their formal characteristics, promoting a didactic modification of their original function, conceived in design, or building new artifacts with the available material in daily life. This strategy assumes the scientific education as a pedagogical practice directed to the formation of a citizen with active participation in society, overcoming the condition of passive consumers of goods. As a subsidy to the proposed practice, we do an analysis of the mechanical philosophy of nature, considered as one the main elements of the technological and scientific society.
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Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte. "The Birka Warrior : the material culture of a martial society." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm University, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-1272.
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This is a study of martial material culture in the context of the Viking Age warrior of Birka, Sweden. The aim is to establish the role, function and affiliation of the Birka warrior and thereby place Birka on the power-political map of the 10th century. The study is based on the excavations of the fortified structures, particularly the Garrison, at the trading post of Birka as well as the extensive remains of material culture deriving from these investigations. A starting hypothesis is that an analysis of material culture constitutes a way of mapping social structures and that style and iconography reflect cultural groups, contacts and loyalties.
Based on the case studies of six papers, the synthesis deals with questions of the work and world view of the warriors, as too their relation to their contemporary counterparts in eastern and western Europe. Questions are raised concerning the value and function of symbols in a martial context where material culture reflects rank, status and office. In defining the Birka warrior’s particular stylistic expression, a tool is created and used in the search for contacts and affiliations reflected through the distribution patterns. The results show close contacts with the eastern trading posts located on the rivers Volga and Dnjepr in Ancient Russia.
It is stated that these Rus’ trading posts, essentially inhabited by Northmen, shared a common cultural expression that was maintained throughout a vast area by exceptionally close contacts. It is suggested that a particular stylistic expression developed in these Rus’ trading places containing elements of mainly Scandinavian, Steppe nomadic and Byzantine origin.
In conclusion, the results of this thesis show that the warriors from Birka’s Garrison had a share in the martial development of contemporary Europe but with their own particular traits. Close relations with the eastern trade route and contact with the powerful Byzantine Empire were enjoyed. As a pointer for future research, it is wondered what organisational form the close-knit structure of the Rus’ trading posts actually took, keeping the subsequent guilds of medieval Europe in mind. The fall of the Garrison, as of Birka, corresponds with the establishment of Christianity in the region. Such changes were not limited to Central Sweden but part of a greater process where a new political structure was developing, better anchored in local concerns.
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Weir, Gillian. "Spelling, punctuation and material culture in the later Paston letters." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30912/.
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This thesis examines the spelling practices and letter-writing conventions to be found in the letters and papers of the Paston family and their circle during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Hitherto, most scholarly attention has been on the fifteenth-century material found in Paston archives, with comparatively little research undertaken on the extensive later materials. This thesis is intended as a partial attempt to address this lacuna, drawing on new approaches to the study of early modern English letters. It draws upon a new comprehensive diplomatic transcription of the materials, consisting of approximately 500 documents containing 200,000 words. Building on an earlier pilot study (Weir 2009), the thesis falls into three main chapters, each addressing the collection from a distinct perspective, framed by a contextualising introduction (chapter 1) and a conclusion summarising the findings of the thesis and offering suggestions for future work (chapter 5). Chapter 2 begins with a key question: (1) How did letter-writing conventions of address and subscription alter and develop - if at all - through the Early Modern period, and are these changes reflected in the Paston family correspondence? The thesis demonstrates how the letters preserved in London, British Library, Additional MSS 27447, 27448 and 36988 displayed adherence to formulaic usages, even though, across the 150 years of their construction, there is a notable shift towards shorter constructions. Further research questions linked to these issues involved in address and subscription engage with the material culture of the correspondence: (2) What materials are used for the letters in question? (3) How do writers relate text to space? (4) How were the letters delivered to their recipients, and how and for what reasons were they preserved? Across the collection of letters, there was a clear development in the material culture of letter-writing, most notably through the development of the postal networks in the period, even though letter-writing tools remained relatively unchanged for centuries. Chapter 3 examines spelling practices in the letters. It addresses the following research questions: (1) How standardised were the Paston letters? (2) To what extent do spelling practices differ between male and female letter- writers? (3) Where such practices vary within an individual’s lifetime is it possible to identify the social factors which contributed to that change? (4) To what extent – and if so why -- do these habits vary between generations of the same family? In order to answer these questions, the spelling habits of Robert Paston and his family were examined, along with a number of letters by identifiable female letter-writers. The thesis demonstrates that the letters in the collection displayed a move towards more standardised spellings, but that the use of personal spelling systems and non-standard variants was still very much in evidence. Chapter 4 focuses on further pragmatic features characteristic of Early Modern English correspondence, with a special focus on the function of punctuation. Research questions addressed include: (1) If punctuation is used at all, in what context is it deployed? (2) How – if at all -- does the use of punctuation vary between male and female correspondents? In addition, this chapter will look at communicative acts within the letters including politeness, terms of address, and the use of formulaic constructions, leading to a further question: (3) To what extent do more general pragmatic features vary across the generations and genders of letter-writers? The thesis finds that punctuation practices of female writers vary considerably, even within the output of single individuals, but also that such variation and unconventional usage was not restricted to them. However, during the period covered by the archive there is a clear progression from the use of virgules and limited punctuation through to the deployment of punctuation broadly recognisable to present-day readers.
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Hall, Mark Anthony. "Medieval material culture : explorations of play, performance and biographical trajectories." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2017. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/18976/.
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My ten publications submitted here are offered for validation as a PhD by Publication. They represent a sample of my on-going research into elements of the medieval material culture of Scotland, set in a European context. The main body of evidence on which they draw is the archaeology (both excavated material and stray finds) of the medieval burgh of Perth. This material comprises a vital element of the archaeological collections of Perth Museum & Art Gallery, where I have been based for 22 years as the curator of the archaeology collections. This collection not only provided many of the key strands of evidence I have explored but also the wider inspiration to look at further examples and contrasts from Scotland and Europe. The submitted papers explore this evidence through three overlapping or entangled contexts – medieval Perth, medieval Scotland and medieval Europe –and through three overlapping themes: play, performance (encompassing belief and magic) and biographical trajectories. This work (which also connects to other published research of mine, including Hall 2001a-b; 2003; 2005c-e; 2006; 2011a; 2012a; 2013a and b; 2014a; 2015a-b; 2016b; 2017 and forthcoming a and b) is underpinned by the recognition that museum collections of medieval material culture exist as trace elements of biographical trajectories and that they are always amenable to fresh understanding. Their preservation in museum collections creates the facility to study both neglected objects, for example the general run of board game kit discussed in Publications 1 and 3, and objects which might seem to be fully known, for example the Lewis chessmen or medieval coinage discussed in Publications 4 and 10 respectively. The following synopsis of these publications outlines their themes and issues in the context of the wider debates to which they contribute. The discussion focuses upon the contribution that my publications have sought to make to the key, overlapping and interwoven themes that are their focus: play and performance (Publications 1, 2, 3 and 4, published respectively as Hall 2007; 2016a; 2014b and 2014c), sacrality, magic and performance with particular respect to the town and country debate (Publications 5, 6 and 7, published respectively as Hall 2011b; 2005a and 2005b) and biographical trajectories and performance (Publications 8, 9 and10, published respectively as Hall 2012b; 2014d and 2012c).
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Sinisterra, Maria Alexandra 1975. "Rethinking emergency habitats for refugees : balancing material innovation and culture." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28813.
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Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-117).
This thesis propose an alternative approach to emergency housing for Colombian refugees, helping development agencies put the displaced community on the road to permanent housing. An environmentally friendly 'smart' material is proposed, based on case studies, material tests, experiments and literature research. This is not just a limited shelter solution, but goes beyond construction to include a balanced combination of building technology, material innovation and culture, that promotes an environment for sustainable development: a habitat.
by Maria Alexandra Sinisterra.
S.M.
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Fuquen, Gomez Clara. "Logboats of Coquí : an ethnographic approach to maritime material culture." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2014. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/370021/.
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This thesis focuses on the traditional logboats of Coquí, an Afro-descendant community in the Pacific coast of Chocó, Colombia. It considers these boats as an entry point into the life of the community and explores the technological and functional aspects of the watercraft, their wider context, and related social practices. Based on a transdisciplinary approach, it draws on an ethnographic methodology to look at the question of whether and how the boats inform on the life of the community, their history, their identity and their maritime concerns. This thesis reflects upon the multiple ways in which people in Coquí relate to their boats and the many levels at which these boats operate. It demonstrates that the watercraft of the community of Coquí is significantly complex and holds a fundamental importance to their existence. The present study addresses the need of a comprehensive in-depth look at traditional boats in which the relationships between people and boats are as relevant as the pure technological and functional interests, dominant in the field of boat studies and maritime archaeology. It shows that ethnography is an effective methodology to unveil the richness of the materiality of social life, and the diversity of human engagements with the world.
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Woodyer, Tara Louise. "Playing with toys: the animated geographies of children's material culture." Thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2010. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/playing-with-toys(9ad9239a-5de3-4c5f-8087-e52c4c65225e).html.
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This PhD thesis develops a relational approach to the study of childhood and children. Drawing on the ecumenical approaches of non-representational theory, material culture studies and hybrid geographies, it explores the assemblages of human and nonhuman entities through which childhood comes into being. More specifically, this thesis considers the socio-material assemblages involving children and toys, principally through an ethnographic study of children's everyday practices with this particular type of object. To this end, it addresses a paucity of empirical work conducted with child consumers. To unpack how and why these (often highly commodified) objects matter to children, I address the precise contributions of toys to relational agency in terms of the creative capabilities they possess. Toys, like objects in general, motivate particular inferences, interpretations and responses. These are a function of three broadly conceived prompts to object agency: the sensual and material properties of the toy itself; and the socio-material relations in which the toy is embedded. Through a series of case studies involving cuddly toys, model aeroplanes, trading cards, Bratz fashion dolls, Harry Potter media, dollhouses and video games, I trace the various agencies of toys. This discussion of object agency is then extended through an examination of toys as technologies, which are productive in terms of the co-configuration of imaginative spaces of play in and of the everyday. In this regard, I address magical lands, miniature worlds and virtual spaces of play. By attending to the intimate, embodied ways in which toys matter to children, this thesis examines children's engagements with consumer cultures. In so doing it presents an alter-tale to contemporary debates about the demoralised character of contemporary childhoods and children.
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Skuse, Matthew Leslie. "Greek interactions with Egyptian material culture during the Archaic Period." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/18879.
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This thesis proposes that we can better understand Greek society in the Archaic Period by evaluating the purposes of their interactions with Egyptian material culture and through a greater appreciation of Egyptian political and cultural history in the Third Intermediate and Late Period. The thesis combines an examination of the Egyptian and Egyptianising objects from Greek graves and sanctuaries with a study of Egyptianising motifs in Greek painted pottery and sculpture. With this evidence, the thesis primarily addresses questions of agency and of consumption. It aims to demonstrate that Greek interactions with Egypt are not defined by Phoenician intermediaries or by the foundation of Naucratis late in the seventh century. Instead, it is argues that the development of personal connections between the elite of certain Greek states and the rulers of Egyptian kingdoms in the eighth century could explain the escalation of Greek interactions with Egyptian material culture during the Archaic Period and the regional variability of these interactions. The thesis also highlights the stark differences between Greek interactions with Egyptian and Egyptianising material in different media and in different consumption areas. In their sanctuaries, the Greeks used Egyptian faience, stone, and bronze objects alongside Greek-produced imitations of these objects in order to define aspire to the status of being a member of the elite while accessing a magical potency associated with Egyptian material culture. In other media, however, the Greeks reject imitation of Egyptian subjects and iconography, and instead we find processes of interaction which use Egyptian material culture but do not refer to it explicitly. Therefore it is concluded that Greek interactions with Egyptian material culture not only draws attention to Greek connectivity with surrounding cultures, and the Greek association of Egypt and magical potency, but can also help us to reflect upon different forms of elite-elite and elite-non-elite interaction and self-identification in the Archaic Period.
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Perkins, Philip. "Etruscan settlement, society and material culture in central coastal Etruria /." Oxford : J. and E. Hedges : Archeopress, 1999. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37093078v.
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