Mundane Objects Research Articles

Lemonnier, Pierre. Mundane objects: materiality and non‐verbal communication. 203 pp., illus., bibliogr. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2012. £54.50 (cloth)

Journal of the Royal Anthropological InstituteVolume 20, Issue 2 p. 394-395 Book review Lemonnier, Pierre. Mundane objects: materiality and non-verbal communication. 203 pp., illus., bibliogr. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Left Coast Press, 2012. £54.50 (cloth) John Manley, John Manley Sussex Archaeological SocietySearch for more papers by this author John Manley, John Manley Sussex Archaeological SocietySearch for more papers by this author First published: 30 April 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12111_23Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume20, Issue2June 2014Pages 394-395 RelatedInformation

One Hundred Percent Americanism: Material Culture and Nationalism, Then and Now

This article examines the ways that specific interest groups within the American nation use material culture to attempt to define the parameters of a shared national identity. Case studies are drawn from the first decades of the twentieth century (1900–30) and the early years of the 21st century (2000–12). Analysis of landscapes and artifacts excavated from the working-class industrial town of Berwind in southern Colorado show how an early twentieth-century corporation and its immigrant workers used mundane objects to debate, through symbols, the meanings of citizenship and the nation. An analysis of yellow ribbon magnets used and created by supporters of the Iraq War (2003+) in the 21st century will show how material symbols are deployed in an attempt to reinforce a specific, but contested vision of the nation and the nature of her citizenry.

How consumers as aesthetic subjects co-create the aesthetic experience of the retail environment

The consumer aesthetic experience, diverse and complex, seems to depend on the individual׳s subjective perception. Studies have questioned if this experience can be conceptualized and explained through underlying patterns. Most studies have focused on the properties of aesthetic objects, explaining their influences on consumer responses, while ignoring consumers as aesthetic subjects. Based on the view that consumers seek pleasure out of even the most mundane objects in their everyday consumption, this study explains how consumers interact and formulate aesthetic experiences in the retail environment.

“Dal Sulcis a Sushi”: Tradition and Transformation in a Southern Italian Tuna Fishing Community

“Dal Sulcis a Sushi”: Tradition and Transformation in a Southern Italian Tuna Fishing Community

The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems by Susan Sherman (review)

Reviewed by: The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems by Susan Sherman Dorsía Smith Silva Susan Sherman. The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems. San Antonio: Wings, 2012. 151p. In The Light that Puts an End to Dreams: New and Selected Poems, Susan Sherman projects her inner life as a child, lover, traveler, activist for gay and women’s rights, historian, and writer. This volume, divided in six books, exudes a deep sense of attachment to the human experience and political events. In so doing, Sherman’s poems convey the different voices of those who have felt the pang of suffering and burning of injustice. Through the art of intimacy and honesty, she allows readers to understand that life is full of nuanced pauses and dynamic movements—an ironic movement to witness and experience. In the first section titled, “Genesis,” Sherman manages to convey the beginning of several stages. These moments include the formation of history and political acts, budding love relationships, and shifting changes of seasons. The opening poem “A Poem that Starts in Winter” marks a dramatic scene in which Sherman equates those people “without a history” as people who were made to forget about [End Page 115] their identity: immigrants, Jews, anti-war protestors in the Vietnam era, and lesbians. As the stories of these various people unfold, they are finally given a voice that acknowledges their struggle—a voice, which Sherman notes, formed by writing the poem. In the last several stanzas, Sherman tries to balance her inner rage with a call for justice. However, the backdrop of winter is a constant reminder of the overall somber tone. “Areas of Silence” is an apt title for the second section. The poems focus on love relationships and the “silence” that occurs when lovers are apart. While they demonstrate Sherman’s passionate feelings towards her beloved, the poems in this section are notably weak. Several of the images are trite, and the themes of lust and longing become lackluster by the concluding poem. Sherman’s brilliance returns in two poems in the following sections titled, “The Fourth Wall” and “Long Division.” “Facts” describes the harsh reality of apartheid in South Africa and the numerous South Africans that died fighting against it. The poem also explores the irony of how many Americans, especially students, have no knowledge of international issues or question contemporary events. Once again, Sherman’s inner rage emerges throughout the poem and strikes readers with thoughtful intensity. “Holding Together” is also impressionable due to its balance of fresh descriptions of mundane objects and tasks with the speaker’s rhythmic movement in New York. By merging these elements, Sherman demonstrates her unique ability to capture concrete imagery and emotions. Sherman explores chanting, traveling, and religion in the fifth section titled, “Cantos for Elegua.” The text’s notes state that Elegua is the “opener of the doors.” In the same vein, the poems in this section reproduce Sherman’s journeys to various countries like Nicaragua and Spain and experiences with different rituals and beliefs. These poems also serve as a pathway to the last section, “The Light that Puts an End to Dreams,” which is a series of poems about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the 17th century Mexican nun who broke many traditions by writing poetry and became known as the “first feminist of the Americas.” Accompanied by photographs by Joséphine Sacabo, Sherman’s poems reflect the blurred photographic images as they merge the biography of de la Cruz with contemporary events. This union is a powerful relationship and responds to Sherman’s desire to question those who suppressed the artistic talent of de la Cruz and subordinate women in general. As in her previous poems, Sherman challenges injustice, discrimination, and historical “facts” and ends by questioning the “madness” of the current century. [End Page 116] Dorsía Smith Silva Middle Tennessee State University Copyright © 2014 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Matter of transformation

In this month’s cover story, Caroline Hummels and Pierre Levy propose an alternative, value-based vision for design: Can we create alternative ways to engage with the world based on trusting our senses? Where intuition is as valuable as logic? Where commitment and engagement are valuable assets for growth? Where people can take a first-person perspective and be in the moment, instead of forever worrying about efficiency? Growing out of a long history of work in the Designing Quality in Interaction group at TU Eindhoven, Hummels and Levy’s vision is rooted in phenomenology and the ideas of 20th-century philosophers such as Dewey, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Over the course of the article they build their case for this new approach, highlighting projects that illustrate aspects of the vision they outline. As the cover image hints, even typically mundane objects such as vending machines can produce rich, aesthetically rewarding experiences when their design is inspired by phenomenology and its associated values such as embodiment.

Book Review: The Mind's Eye

The Mind's Eye. Oliver Sacks. New York: Vintage Books, Knopf Doubleday, 2011, 288 pages, $15. Oliver Sacks' recent book, The Mind's Eye, is well worth a read. He has created an amalgam of detailed clinical anecdotes that weave a story of the remarkably resilient and flexible capabilities exhibited by the human mind in the face of adversity. He describes how damage to the eye or brain can reveal the nature of brain mechanisms, and he highlights some of the many remarkable strategies that the remaining, intact brain can employ to circumvent damaged areas. Sacks is a master storyteller. He lucidly explains complex science, and describes how this knowledge can be used to help his patients in their day-to-day lives. LOSS OF SPOKEN LANGUAGE AND THE ABILITY TO READ Massive stroke due to hemorrhage into the left side of the brain impairs movement on the other side of the body, and in most people impairs the ability to speak due to aphasia, which is often associated with the ability to read. In some people, however, the capacity to reason linguistically remains intact, as in the remarkable patient, Pat, whom Sacks describes. This ability, combined with the enhanced vibrant and dynamic body language that she developed, enabled her to ultimately communicate with verve and fluency. The idea that a stroke ends a person's inner life was completely rejected by Pat's daughters, who adopted a totally positive approach to her medical condition. Despite the understandable overwhelming nature of her neurological disorder, Pat ultimately conquered over adversity. Using multiple adaptive strategies, she became skilled at understanding and communicating by means of a range of alternative approaches. In particular, she gained an ability to communicate fluently by selecting a succession of singular printed words, which she had become able to read, using a custom-designed lexicon compiled by her daughters. Neurological alexia is an inability to read, due to focal damage to the brain. The case of Howard Engel is described in which a stroke affecting the object- and shape-recognition centers in the left temporal lobe of his brain led to objects such as fruit becoming unidentifiable. This deficit was associated with problems recognizing colors and faces, which can also be affected by damage in the same area of the brain. Engel is portrayed as a Canadian writer known for his Benny Cooperman series of detective novels, so his inability to recognize printed words became a major barrier to his rehabilitation. The paradox of his disorder was that he retained the capacity to write, known as alexia without agraphia. In describing the treatment approach for Engel, Sacks highlights a lecture given by the French neurologist Charcot in 1883, in which he described a patient with the selfsame condition, who relearned how to read, not through vision, but by means of gesticulating the letters in the air. (This has been referred to as pantomiming by Goodale and Milner, in their 2004 book, Sight Unseen.) Engel took this strategy one step further; he instead learned to trace the letters that he was unable to read visually with his tongue on the roof of his mouth as an alternative route to reading! Through persistence and tenacity he has written two more books that draw upon his personal experiences. INABILITY TO RECOGNIZE OBJECTS AND FACES Progressive cortical atrophy affecting the visual brain is a rare, untreatable disorder. When it affected an able and skilled musician, she dealt with her resulting slowly progressive inability to recognize mundane objects by sight (known as object agnosia) in much the same way as someone who is blind adapts to vision loss. The specific colors of kitchen implements aided her in their identification, but the use of colored labels--which could have revealed to others her visual difficulties--was rejected in favor of her own memories regarding where she had placed the objects complemented by their tactile characteristics. …

Review of 'Mundane Objects'

Pierre Lemonnier’s new book, the excitingly titled <em>Mundane Objects</em>, is mainly a contribution in the author’s long-standing engagement with the French anthropological tradition of <em>technologie culturelle</em>, of which he has become probably the most important active proponent. While this book is definitely in the tradition of Lemonnier’s work since the 1970’s, it presents important new perspectives on the place of material culture in society.

Mundane objects. Materiality and non-verbal communication, by Lemonnier, Pierre

<i>Mundane objects. Materiality and non-verbal communication</i>, by Lemonnier, Pierre

The Inside Out of Childhood Archaeology

ABSTRACTTwo identical ceramic rattles dated to the Early Islamic period (ninth–eleventh centuries CE), retrieved from excavations at Mishmar David (Israel), were studied using petrographic analysis and x-ray radiography. The petrography shows that the rattles were made of a typical Egyptian Nile Valley clay, while the x-ray radiography provides important data regarding their interior, including the sounding elements they contain. Given the rarity of contemporaneous ceramic rattles and the foreign origin of the specimens, the present study contributes to the broader discipline of childhood archaeology in the Early Islamic Near East, providing additional evidence of the Egyptian presence in Early Islamic Palestine, and contributes to a better understanding of the technology used in the manufacture of these mundane objects.

Digital imaging in popular cinema

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 To what extent has cinema been transformed by the advent of digital imaging? Have digital solutions to production challenges begun to change our experience of films, and their characters, action and narratives? And what impact does the inclusion of digital imaging in the film frame have on our interpretation and analysis of film texts? Digital Imaging in Popular Cinema explores these issues through analysis of specific film moments and extended case studies of films including Minority Report, King Kong, 300 and Hugo . It discusses how digital imaging can mimic, transform, shape and generate both fantastical and mundane objects and phenomena from scratch, and what the implications are for how we ‘read’ films, and explores how cultural ideas about digital imaging can influence meaning within a film, a scene or even a single shot. The increasingly widespread use of digital imaging in cinema means that we can no longer afford to ignore it when critically analysing and interpreting film texts. This innovative and engaging book provides a blueprint for approaching digital imaging in contemporary film, and is therefore essential reading for all those working in the field of Film Studies.

The Magic of Mundane Objects: Culture, Identity and Power in a Country Vets' Practice

This article explores and extends the idea that material objects lie at the heart of many of our social, and specifically workplace, interactions. The site of exploration is an ethnography of a British farm animal veterinary surgery. Drawing upon traditional cultural studies approaches alongside contemporary sociological understandings about the place of materials in social life, the article analyses how objects function to track and structure the ways that people of different professional status experience work at a veterinary surgery. It is argued that the power of the veterinary elite in this setting is best understood by paying close attention to ‘mundane' artefacts. The article argues that such objects, having almost no meaning on their own, can become potent cultural symbols if actors have the necessary social capital to ‘transform’ them. Here, Latimer's concept of ‘strong moves’ (2004) is extended to consider how the reinterpretation of objects might constitute a form of ‘cultural magic’. This article seeks to uncover some of the practical scenarios in which such ‘magical’ transformations play out and describes, through a series of tales from the field ( Van Maanen, 1985 ), the ways in which vets control and regulate their interactions with those outside the professional elite.

Japanese Screen by Kano Eitoku

View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload (PPT)Kano Eitoku (1543-1590) was born in Kyoto, Japan, on February 16, 1543, into a family of renowned artists who also maintained a dynastic art school.1Kyoto National Museum. Special Exhibition: Kano Eitoku, Momoyama Painter Extraordinaire. http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/tokubetsu/071016/tokubetsu.html. Accessed November 8, 2012.Google Scholar He was somewhat of a child prodigy in art and in his prime became one of the most popular Japanese artists.2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Eitoku. Accessed November 8, 2012.Google Scholar The breadth of this fame is noted to have placed a significant impact on his style of art, which became known as taiga or “big painting,” because the large-scaled works could not accommodate the time it would take to include detailed brush-strokes.3Kano Eitoku. Answers website. http://www.answers.com/topic/kano-eitoku. Accessed November 8, 2012.Google Scholar One of Eitoku’s historically noted chief patrons was Oda Nounaga, the military dictator of Japan (reigned from 1551-1582), and his talent was enlisted for castles, temples, and palaces.4Kano Eitoku Biography. Encyclopedia of World Biography website. http://www.bookrags.com/biography/kano-eitoku/. Accessed November 8, 2012.Google Scholar From afar, Japanese Screen is a skyline and lakeshore of rugged oriental terrain. A more intimate view reveals a scene dotted with bonsai-like trees, long-legged cranes roosting in trees or wading along the waterfront and reflected in the waves, and plush, white chrysanthemums dangling among vines and green leaves. It is peaceful and serene. Two questions are evoked when viewing Japanese Screen: (1) Why would so much care be put into making this mundane object, this tool of daily living, look so attractive? and (2) When does a creation pass from being art to artifact? The human need for beauty in all things, the hunger for “bread and roses,” clearly fuels the beauty of these panels. They are not like the furniture of today, mass produced with standardized print, pattern, and color, but painted with grand nature scenes, pruned gardens, and bright colors, all replicated to enlighten the home. Without looking up the definition of “artifact,” it is clear to me that a creation passes from being art to artifact when the identity of the creator is forgotten. Even after 5 centuries, this Japanese Screen is still known to be the product of Kano Eitoku. It is marked with his touch, style, and vision. Created with gold leaf on rice paper, Japanese Screen is a gift from Jacob Greenberg and is located in the elevator alcove on the subway level of the Mayo Building in Rochester, Minnesota.

A day to be lived. Elderly peoples' possessions for everyday life in assisted living

This study is a qualitative interview study about the household possessions that elderly women and men brought with them when moving into assisted living. The move implied a substantial reduction of their possessions since, in all cases, they had left a larger dwelling than the one they moved to. The study gives a glimpse into the everyday life of the oldest old in assisted living. The things the elderly participants brought were of three types; cherished objects, representations of who they were, and mundane objects. The most important objects indicated by the elderly often belonged to the third type, and were preferred for the significance they had for the everyday life of the individual. These objects revealed a circumscribed but dignified life in their private bed-sitting room, often in solitude, where the elderly individuals pursued various interests and small-scale activities. However, this life was organized and preferred by the individuals themselves, in accordance with the principles of resident autonomy and individual choice that are promoted in assisted living. The author suggests that these self-engaged pursuits can contribute to bridging the gap between disengagement and activity theories. The study results also contribute to making visible the private life of the oldest old in assisted living.

Mundane Objects and the Banality of Evil

In this article, we study one organization that played a pivotal role in the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s: the S-21 extermination center. We analyze, in particular, how processes of sociomateriality in the death camp contributed to create order and normalcy in an extreme and abnormal organization. A more nuanced view of agency ensues from this analysis, one that helps the understanding of how the creation of material spaces critically influences organizing, including the organizing of genocide.

The Theatre of Hungarian Indians and Informants

The contemporary Hungarian play Apaches on the Danube was conceived by dramaturg Krisztina Kovács, after she read the extensive secret police files on a group of friends, who secretly “played Indians” and followed the traditions of the Native American Apache tribe in the late 1950s, early 1960s Hungary. The play, which Kovács co-authored with playwright Géza Bereményi and opened in 2009, is a fictitious reconstruction of how the group was dissolved and their leader murdered as a consequence of a secret informant's revealing reports. The plot juxtaposes two historic periods; while the secret collaborator is coerced to betray his friends during one of the darkest periods of Communist dictatorship, his grandchild in the present accidentally meets the son of the informer‘s former victim and through this encounter he confronts and comes to term with the sins of the now dad grandfather. Even though Apaches on the Danube may seem not to fit into the genre of documentary theatre, in this essay I argue that the performance still fulfills what is considered as the most important function of documentary theatre today: by melding fiction and non-fiction, it underlines that “truth is contextual, multiple, and subject to manipulation” (Carol Martin) and interrogates “the very notion of documentary” (Paget). Most importantly, Apaches on the Danube interrogates what constitutes the document itself; it demonstrates that not only archival files and visual materials should be considered as documents, but in the theatre of history and memory, mundane objects of the past, intangible atmospheric evocations of disappeared spaces and the historiographically informed scripts together document a historic era and/or event. It also emphasizes that the document is not an incontestable evidence, as the audience's understanding and reception of the past is not only an intellectual, but also, and primarily, a phenomenological experience.

Weapons Make the Man (Larger): Formidability Is Represented as Size and Strength in Humans

In order to determine how to act in situations of potential agonistic conflict, individuals must assess multiple features of a prospective foe that contribute to the foe's resource-holding potential, or formidability. Across diverse species, physical size and strength are key determinants of formidability, and the same is often true for humans. However, in many species, formidability is also influenced by other factors, such as sex, coalitional size, and, in humans, access to weaponry. Decision-making involving assessments of multiple features is enhanced by the use of a single summary variable that encapsulates the contributions of these features. Given both a) the phylogenetic antiquity of the importance of size and strength as determinants of formidability, and b) redundant experiences during development that underscore the contributions of size and strength to formidability, we hypothesize that size and strength constitute the conceptual dimensions of a representation used to summarize multiple diverse determinants of a prospective foe's formidability. Here, we test this hypothesis in humans by examining the effects of a potential foe's access to weaponry on estimations of that individual's size and strength. We demonstrate that knowing that an individual possesses a gun or a large kitchen knife leads observers to conceptualize him as taller, and generally larger and more muscular, than individuals who possess only tools or similarly mundane objects. We also document that such patterns are not explicable in terms of any actual correlation between gun ownership and physical size, nor can they be explained in terms of cultural schemas or other background knowledge linking particular objects to individuals of particular size and strength. These findings pave the way for a fuller understanding of the evolution of the cognitive systems whereby humans – and likely many other social vertebrates – navigate social hierarchies.

The Devil, the Master-Criminal, and the Re-enchantment of the World (On The Usual Suspects )

What is so appealing about the figure of the master-criminal? The answer lies in the kind of solution it provides to the problem of suffering. Rather than just accounting for affliction—as, for example, does Leibniz’s theodicy—such a figure enchants it, transforming mundane objects into actual or potential clues, everyday incidents into moves in a cosmic conflict, random misery into a purposeful pattern. The master-criminal (the shadowy villain of The Usual Suspects , say) thus constitutes a secular replacement for the Devil, making possible a negative re-enchantment of the world.

Ambiguous pots: Everyday practice, migration and materiality. The case of medieval Baltic ware on the island of Bornholm (Denmark)

Archaeologists routinely deal with the remains of everyday life. Yet the significance and dimensions of daily practices are rarely reflected upon. Merging Bourdieu’s theory of practice, recent theories of everyday life and the materiality approach in archaeology, this study addresses the potential importance of daily practices and mundane objects in dealing with a rupture caused by migration. As a case study I use an example of medieval (eleventh century) Western Slavic migration to the island of Bornholm (Denmark) and production and daily handling of ceramic pots, the so-called Baltic ware. I explore the possible background to the introduction of the new pottery style, its significance for the local population of the island and above all the meanings these types of ceramics could have had for the immigrant Slavs.

New Oil in Old Jars: Hipponax's Lekythos -Throw and Aristophanes' Frogs 1198-247

This discussion has its origins in a common article, ubiquitous in Greek life: the oil jar or lekythos. Probably first made of leather, and subsequently from clay (although more expensive materials like glass or precious metal could be used on occasion), the lekythos was filled with oil, unguents, wine, cosmetics, or whatever could be made to fit in it. (1) The vessel might appear in many different contexts, whether at funerals (where it was buried with the body), in the kitchen, or among the articles used by women in their beauty regimes. According to our ancient sources, it was one of the accessories that individuals of both sexes most commonly had about their persons. Walking to and from the gymnasium or baths, Athenians (or their slaves) regularly carried the small object, along with a strigil, so as to rub and cleanse their skins with oil after exercising or bathing. This mundane object also had a long and varied literary career, (2) appearing in classical and postclassical authors who invested it with functions and meanings sometimes very different from those that it fulfilled in daily practice. In this article I treat two lekythoi in the literary accounts and argue for a possible intertextual relation between the episodes in which they appear. These several incidents also serve to make two broader points, whose relevance to the humdrum oil jar will become apparent: first, Hipponax's songs may have included a degree of literary self-consciousness and programmatic reflection more regularly associated with other authors and different genres; and second, the conceit of a literary a [gamma] [omega] v, which pits rival practitioners of the same or different poetic and aesthetic modes one against the other, might not only be a standard framework for exchanges of mockery and abuse in Old Comedy, but might belong among the several points of affinity between that genre and archaic iambos. (3) I My argument begins with an anecdote conspicuously absent from the half dozen or so modern discussions of figurative uses of lekythos and its compounds in the ancient sources. The episode appears no less than three times among the extant testimonia for the life of Hipponax. Grouped in Degani's (1983) edition as testimonia 19, 19a, and 19b, the three texts are so similar in language and content that they most probably derive from a single source, possibly an earlier commentator on Hipponax. (4) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Testim. 19: Metrodorous Scepsius 184 F 6 J. ap. Athenaeus 12.552c-d [T 5 Gerber]) Metrodorus of Scepsius in the second book of his 'On the Art of Training' says that the poet Hipponax was not only small of body but also thin and yet was so muscular that in addition to other feats he threw even an empty oil flask a very great distance, although light objects because of their inability to cleave the air do not have a strong momentum. (Trans. Gerber 1999) [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Testim. 19a: Aelian, VH 10.6) They say that the poet Hipponax was not only small of body and ugly, but also thin. [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (Testim. 19b: Eustathius ad Hom. [PSI] 844 [1332, 54ff.]) One must know with regard to Polypoites that those throwing [the discus] in the discus are said to be muscular, just as, they say, the following makes clear. Hipponax the poet, although he was small of body and thin, was yet so muscular that in addition to other feats he threw even an empty oil flask a very great distance, for all that objects having light bodies, such as an empty oil flask, do not have a strong momentum because of their inability to cleave the air. In the only recent and sustained discussion of the anecdote, Ralph Rosen (1990) endorses earlier readers' suggestion that the episode had its origins in Hipponax's poetry and argues that the no longer extant composition would have involved an incident where the poet portrayed himself as mocked for his seeming debility and challenged to a competition (Rosen 1990, 13). …