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Suzanne Godby Ingalsbe - Review of Arthur Asa Berger, What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture

Abstract

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Arthur Asa Berger’s tripartite volume What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture is true to its subtitle. The prolific author and emeritus professor of Broadcast Communications Arts has a PhD in American Studies, which seems to have informed his interest, approach, and examples in this book. Illustrated throughout with photographs of likely familiar objects and the author’s doodles, and divided clearly into sections on “Theoretical Approaches to Material Culture,” “Applications,” and “Material Culture Games,” this work suggests itself for a variety of uses in the undergraduate classroom.

The author draws upon both seminal texts by key figures, like Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and writings about the work of major theorists, like Philip Rieff’s Freud: Character and Culture. Examples from popular culture, such as Rich Moranis’ New York Times essay “My Days Are Numbered,” are also included. One of the text’s strengths is its incorporation of passages of theorists’ writings along with discussion of theories and those who wield them. The author clearly identifies his sources, simultaneously offering resources for potential further reading and examples for students on how to select, use, and cite scholarly material. The sources included in the book’s brief overview provide a basic introduction to the topic, but they also point to a potential addition that would have benefitted readers interested in further pursuing the study of material culture and instructors building new course syllabi: a list of suggested further readings, ideally categorized by discipline or topic.

The first section introduces six theoretical approaches to the study of material culture, some of which are broad (“Archaeology”) and subsequently subdivided into more specific theories. The chapters, each shorter than twenty pages, are introduced with a passage by a relevant theorist and end with a concluding paragraph or two recapping primary points. While the coverage is necessarily brief and could, at times, greatly benefit from expansion, it provides a useful alternative to the cursory online searches so favored by students quickly seeking a basic introduction to new names and scholarly methods. Instructors need not fear that this volume will render them redundant. Although the writing is generally approachable and clear, instances of undefined jargon slip through (“perspectivist approach”) which will require additional explanation. Also, rather than being exhaustive, the book presents a sampler platter of information to be expanded upon by experienced material culture scholars and enhanced by additional object study and complementary readings.

Part Two of the book is called “Applications” and contains a series of thirteen short case studies exploring some common issues addressed through material culture studies (identity, representation, authenticity) and some topics that may be explored through studying objects (religion, technology, reality). The short essays are followed by three to six questions that could be used in a class discussion or assigned as preparatory writing assignments. Each case study focuses on one object (or type of object, such as cosmetics) and examines the stated theme through it. Some of these cases, like the use of Air Jordans to explore identity, make the objects central to the inquiry and may explore multiple facets of the issue in question. Others, like the “Religion” example that uses Rangda masks from Bali as its jumping off point, diverge from the material culture focus and might have presented almost identical arguments without referencing an object at all.

Here I pause to note a puzzling element of this work: the indexing. It is unclear what indexing principles have been employed. Playboy and Erich Fromm make it into the index, but postmodernism and Tom Wolfe do not. (Bruno Bettelheim managed to be excluded from both the index and the bibliography but can be found on pages 116-117.) The objects referenced in the “Applications” case studies are indexed and followed by rudimentary outlines of the studies’ major points. Readers are advised to take good notes, because it is uncertain whether the index will help them locate various points again later.

The final section, on games, which might make more sense as a supplement to what otherwise feels like an undergraduate textbook, contains a variety of activities that could be easily incorporated into classroom discussion to expand upon ideas presented in earlier portions of the book. Some, such as the “Artifacts Inventory Game,” can be imagined as an icebreaker activity for the first days of a course. Others provide opportunity for enhancing analytical writing skills with prompts derived from the types of analysis described in previous sections, and specific application games like the “Grid-Group Theory and Object Game” lead students to link the theories or disciplinary perspectives they have read about to objects that probably play a role in their daily lives. Although some of the examples included are quite specific (Bic shaver) or likely to become dated (CDs), they should be quickly adaptable. These activities seem most likely to be helpful for instructors teaching a material culture course for the first time.

Berger’s book takes a complex and nuanced topic—the study of material culture—and pares it down to a manageable first approach. Certainly suggestions of other scholars who could, and perhaps should, have been included might be made; the contributions of James Deetz, Henry Glassie, and Daniel Miller spring to mind, to name only a very few. Additionally, the book’s orientation to social sciences may leave those who come to the study of material culture through the lens of art history or decorative arts wondering at their lack of representation. Since it does provide a reasonable overview of theories applied in various social science contexts, perhaps it might serve them as a supplementary introduction to approaches from other disciplines. Overall, the book presents a basic survey of several important theories and scholars that students should become familiar with when beginning to study material culture, and demonstrates a useful structure for a course syllabus.

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[Review length: 971 words • Review posted on April 17, 2013]