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¶ … Culture
The term "culture" originally described aspects of cultivation in agriculture but in the current sense has been used in anthropology to explain the aspects of human behavior that cannot be attributed to genetic influences (Gertz, 1973). Gertz (1973) defines culture as having two aspects: the capacity to act creatively and represent experience through civilization and the distinct differences as to how different groups of people represent their experience.
Culture is a potent force in the survival of people but is also a fragile entity. Culture can constantly change and can be easily lost because culture exists in the minds and thoughts of people. For this reason many anthropologists and sociologists further distinguish culture into material culture, the distinct physical artifacts a society creates and non-material culture which basically consist of all other aspects of culture (Newman, 2011).
The focus in material culture studies is to understand a particular culture or society by scrutiny of the physical objects generated by that particular group. The objects studied in material culture can cover a wide range of objects from man -- made artefacts, naturally occurring objects, or even preserved corpses. Material culture...
Material culture studies have focused on the notion that the objects of a particular culture can reflect the values of the culture itself. The study of material culture has followed two basic approaches (Woodward, 2007):
One way that material culture is studied is based on an "object -- centered approach" where the focus of investigation is centered on the materials or "objects" of a culture themselves (Herman, 1992). In this approach the specific physical characteristics of the objects of a specific culture are described such as: how the object is made, what materials are in the object, the physical attributes of the object (e.g., size, weight, shape, etc.), when the object was produced, the design or decorative status of the object, and what the purpose of function of the object was. The object -- centered approach focuses on attempts to place objects into groups or categories or to identify broader artistic movements. This approach is certainly used by archaeologists and of course by art historians (Friedel, 1993).
A second approach to material culture study has been described…
References
Friedel, R. (1993). Some matters of substance. In Lubar, S. & Kingery, W.D. (eds.). History
from things: Essays on material culture (pp. 41 -- 50). Washington, DC: Smithsonian
Institution Press.
Gertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
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