SOCI/ANTH Material Culture Week 3: Social Theory

Week 3 — Social TheorySOCI/ANTH 441 Material CultureAlexandre EnkerliSeptember 17, 2008

Today

•Project talk▫Logistics▫Work with Objects

•Themes in material culture•Theory Tasters

Project Logistics

•Part I due October 1•Can do “prewrite” by September 24•Find thing•Start work on

• Description• Literature

What is it?

•What is it called?•What is it made of?•How are intrinsic elements integrated?•What is it related to?•What is its history?•What is its future?

What does it do?

•What are its effects on the world?▫Material, physical, biological effects▫Psychological, emotional effects▫Social effects

•How does it function?▫Relationship between parts▫Intended uses▫Unintended uses

What does it mean?

•To subject•In group•In cultural context

Diachrony

•History•Story•Genealogy•Biography•Transformation•Shaping•Dynamic

Ethnography

•Cultural diversity•Tradition•Purity•Trash•Representation

Daily Life

•Public/private dichotomy•Domesticity•Use of objects•Ritualization•Sacred/profane

Marxian

•Means of Production•Consumption•Globalization•Commodification•Materialism•Environmentalism•Gift economy

Status and Inequality

•Gender•Age•Class•Ethnicity

Theories

•Not stuck on detail•Named or not•Material culture classics•Adapt frameworks•All related

ANT and SI

•Constructivism (non-essentialism)•Post-modernism and post-structuralism•Architecture•Human+Non-human•Agency

Latour Themes

•Human/non-human agency•Objectification of human agency•Unreliability of object/humans•Function of object and absence of object•Non-human relation to human relations•Subscribing (and style)

Latour Terms

•Scene (people and things)•Delegation (give over)•Prescription (order for action: goal and

modification)•Subscription (conform)•De-inscription (deviate)•Obligatory Passage Point (what has to

occur)•Pre-inscription (everything upstream)

ANT Links

•http://www.istheory.yorku.ca/actornetworktheory.htm

•http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/ant_dff.html

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor-network_theory

Smith & Bugni Themes

•Places representing people/identities•Expressing self•Reflects/influences•Efficiency•Protecting from over-stimulation•Proximity and urban space (iPod

software)•Intrinsic meaning or possibilities•Sensory dimensions

Lip-Service

Tech World

•Forced adoption•Luddites•Losing jobs to robots•Marrying robots in 50 years?•Technological singularity

Science Culture

•Geek culture•AI

• Hello world• Turing

•Biological machines•Nanotech•Science-Fiction

• Genuine People Personalities (HHGttG)

Next Week

•Domesticity and Gender•Private life and social inequality•Places and objects