Anth 3520 - Social Lives of Places and Things

Notes from 17 January 2008

 

Plan for class:

Admin -  Greetings, meet Kathryn, Nelson, and Each Other... does everyone have handouts? Next week's reading... available online as pdfs. See below for homework.

Discussions:  General discussion about social lives of places and things, and about the Molotch reading.

 

 

Your homework for this week was this:

First:

This is a small writing assignment designed to help me get to know you as students, and to help you to start thinking about the social lives of places and things. It should be no more than 600 words long – be concise. Your tasks:

a) Write a paragraph answering these questions: What do you hope to gain from this course? What interests you about material culture and/or the archaeology of the contemporary past? How does this connect with your background, life experience, or other courses you've taken? Please specify your year of study, your major, and related courses you've taken.

b) As you go through your ordinary activities this week, pay close attention to the things you use, and the places you move through. Think, for example, about the biography of a paper coffee cup, a pen, a mobile phone, a computer, a chair…. Where do these things come from? What do they mean to you? How do they play a role in your own social life? What is their role in our culture, generally?  Or think, for example, about a shopping mall or a place in the university. How does the building dictate the activities of the people within it? Does it tell you how to move, or how to interact? Write a paragraph about your example, and suggest some of the ways that material culture affects our lives.

This is worth 1% of your class participation mark for the year. Be ready to talk about your answer to (b) in class. Please hand the assignment in at class next week on 17 January. On the first page of your assignment, clearly write: your name and student number, the course number & name, and my name.

 

Second, do the reading… from the Molotch book Where Stuff Comes From: How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers, and Many Other Things Come to Be as They Are.  (Reading is available in folders outside KD’s office, Vari 2036.)

Write a 500-600 word response to this reading, which you will hand in, in class on Jan 17th, for 2% of your seminar mark. We will also be discussing this in class. The exact topic of your response is up to you, but you should demonstrate that you’ve read the material. You could reflect on some of these questions, for example: What interested you about it? What was new to you? What approach does Molotch use in trying to understand “stuff”? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach?

 

 

 

 

What Makes a Toaster Possible?
 

 

“It does not just sear bread, but presupposes a pricing mechanism for home amperage, government standards for electric devices, producers and shopkeepers who smell a profit, and people’s various sentiments about the safety of electrical current and what a breakfast, nutritionally and socially, ought to be…. There is a global system that yields a toaster’s raw materials, governments that protect its patents, a labor force to work at the right price, and a dump ready to absorb it in the end.” – Harvey Molotch

 

 

For next week...

For January 24  (Other approaches to Stuff / Material Culture)

As you read, think about how these readings compare to the Molotch book.

Your homework:

a) Prepare a brief commentary on the similarities and differences in these authors' approaches to "stuff"; i.e., briefly compare Petroski, Basalla, Dant, and Molotch, OR any two or three of those authors. What does each assume about stuff and the way it comes to be, and its role in the world?

This should be about 400-500 words long (point form or table form is okay), and will be worth 2% of your mark. Come to class prepared to discuss!

b) As you go about your life this week, look around... think about objects that SHOULD exist, but DON'T. Brainstorm and come up with something that doesn't exist, that you think SHOULD exist. Why doesn't it exist in our world? Draw a sketch and write a short description (200-300 words). This is worth 1% of your mark. We'll be passing these around and discussing them in class!

 

 

▪ Henry Petroski. 1992. The Evolution of Useful Things. New York: Vintage Books. Ch 4, pp 51-77 “From Pins to Paper Clips”    From Pins to Paper Clips (677 Kb)

▪ George Basalla, 1988. The Evolution of Technology. Ch 1 pp 1-25. “Diversity, Necessity, and Evolution” and OPTIONAL Ch 2 pp 26-63 “Continuity and Discontinuity”.

Diversity, Necessity, Evolution (1333 Kb)

The Evolution of Technology (935 Kb)

▪ Tim Dant, 1999. Material Culture in the Social World.  Buckingham: Open University Press. Ch 5 pp 85-109, Ch 8 pp 153-175.  “Wearing it Out: Written and Material Clothing”, and “Turn it on: Objects that Mediate”.

Wearing It Out  (1346 Kb)

Turn It On (1316 Kb)