Course:LIBR559A/Gosden, C., & Marshall, Y. (1999)

Citation

Gosden, C., & Marshall, Y. (1999, October). The Cultural Biography of Objects. World Archaeology, 31(2), 169-178.

Annotation

Dr. Yvonne Marshall is a senior lecturer and tutor for Archaeology at the University of South Hampton in the UK. She is currently researching ways to incorporate feminist theory and indigenous archaeologies into interpretation of the past and how archaeological findings are reported. Dr. Chris Gosden is the Director of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Oxford and is also a professor of European Archaeology. Gosden and Marshall discuss the recent change from using objects to describe places and time to seeing them as ways of contributing to social analyses. People and objects change over time, their meaning changes, and they both influence each other. They detail the ways in which interactions between people and objects can create meaning. An object can gain importance by who has owned it, where it has been, how it has changed since it was created. It is important to look at the full history of an object to fully understand it. Simply looking at one aspect of its “life” limits the story it can tell. An example is that of gifts. The person sending the gift is attached to that gift, they are added to the object’s life history. The person receiving the gift is influenced by it, and that influence is based on who has sent it. The article continues with discussing the Strathernian framework of objects as social actors. Examining Hoskins’ work explains that a person’s own biography can also end up tied to an object. Objects can also obtain biographies through situations that do not involve exchange or physical modification. One such example is through ceremonial performances. It is important to take into account where an object is from and what it is used for but to also incorporate its biography and how the culture used the item and their own meaning for it. People need to be careful to not attach meaning to an item where there is none, and additionally to not dismiss something that they do not see as important. It is interesting look at different theories about the interactions between people and objects.

Associated Research Projects. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/CG1.html

Dr Yvonne Marshall PhD, MA, BA. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2017, from http://www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology/about/staff/ymm.page#research

Areas / Topics / Keywords

Cultural Biography, Objects and Society, Social Actors

Page author: Kelly Murphy