Understanding Material Culture

PART ONE: LOCATING MATERIAL CULTURE/The Material as Culture. Definitions Perspectives Approaches/Studying Material Culture. Origins and Premises /PART TWO: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO STUDYING MATERIAL CULTURE/The Deceptive Suspicious Object. Marxist and Critical Approaches /The Object as Symbolic Code. Structural and Semiotic Approaches/The Material Representing the Cultural Universe. Objects Symbols and Cultural Categories/PART THREE: OBJECTS IN ACTION/Objects and Distinction. The Aesthetic Field and Expressive Materiality/Material Culture and Identity. Objects and the Self/Material Culture Narratives and Social Performance. Objects in Contexts/PART FOUR: CONCLUSION/Conclusion:/Objects and Meaning in Consumer Culture