Full Description
This volume addresses the dynamics of materiality over time and space. In cross-cultural, multi-temporal and interdisciplinary studies the authors examine how things gain meaning and status, generate a multitude of emotions, and feed into the propagation of myths, narratives and discourses. The book is divided according to four themes: soft objects, stoic stories, consuming and the collectable, and waste and technologies. The first section discusses the meanings of the lived environment on the individual and national levels. The second section provides specific examples on the role of things in identity construction. The third section focuses on historical and contemporary aspects of consumption and collecting. The phenomena under scrutiny in the fourth section are moral dilemmas associated with and representations of dirt/waste and advancements in science and technology. Presenting diverse case studies of material culture, the volume points to rich interdisciplinary approaches in cultural theory.
Contents
Introduction. Storing and storying the serendipity of objects / Patrick LavioletteSOFT OBJECTSThe natural order is decay: the home as an ephemeral art project / Stephen Harold RigginsPlacing objects first: filming transnationalism / Carlo A. CuberoBeware of dreams come true: valuing the intangible in the American Dream / Rowan R. MackaySTOIC STORIESThe travelling furniture: materialised experiences of living in the Jewish diaspora / Susanne Nylund SkogA hard matter: stones in Finnish-Karelian folk belief / Timo MuhonenAn embroidered royal gift as a political symbol and embodiment of design ideas in 1885 / Kirsti Salo-MattilaCONSUMING AND THE COLLECTABLEThe 'vintage community' in Bucharest: consumers and collectors / Maria CristacheThe visual form of newspapers as a guide for information consumption / Roosmarii KurvitsDesign for individuality: the Jordan Individual toothbrushes and interpassivity in material culture / Visa ImmonenCollecting the Nagas: John Henry Hutton, the administrator-collector in the Naga Hills / Meripeni NgullyWASTE AND TECHNOLOGIESWaste and alterity in 'speculative fiction': an assessment of the de- and re-evaluation of material objects in selected dystopian novels / Brigitte GlaserToilet cultures: boundaries, dirt and disgust / Remo GramignaThe social childhood of new ambivalent objects: emerging social representation of new biotechnologies / Maaris Raudsepp, Andu Rammer
