Fashioning culture: Transforming perspectives from Oceania

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24
Author(s):  
Kalissa Alexeyeff ◽  
Geir Henning Presterudstuen
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
World Economy ◽  
Introductory Article ◽  
Clothing Style ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Analytical Category ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
The Relationship

In this introductory article we discuss what might be gained from examining more familiar areas of anthropological research such as cloth, dress or material culture through fashion as an analytical category and, in turn, how insights from Pacific clothing cultures can broaden understandings of fashion. Our aim is to unsettle the ethnographic gaze that is often brought to bear on non-western cultures of fashion, cloth, clothing, style and innovation. Fashion, as we conceive of it, spans from the physical production and design of garments and objects to everyday appearances, the desire to be ‘in vogue’ and the consumption of aesthetic objects that are considered popular. From this starting point we move analyses of fashion from the systemic to the experiential, reflecting ethnographic sensitivity to everyday embodied practice and the constant political and creative negotiation of values and norms that takes place in quotidian social relations. We situate these analyses in a region that is often perceived to be at the very edge of the world economy and invite further discussion about the relationship between fashion and the global flow of people, ideas and commodities.

Her eyes, my body: Negotiating embodiment through Maya back strap weaving

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Amanda Joyce Denham ◽  
Denise N. Green
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Close Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This article discusses the embodiment of making and wearing clothing through a close analysis of the weaving and production practices of a contemporary Maya weaver, Lidia López. The first author lived in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Sacatepéquez, Guatemala where she studied the back strap loom under the instruction of master weaver, Lidia López, while the second author served as an advisor on the research project and assisted with interpretation of fieldwork data. Anthropologist Daniel Miller has encouraged a research approach that thoroughly integrates the practice of making, arguing that 'the things people make, make people'. When a person weaves cloth using centuries-old techniques and tools passed down across generations, the cloth embodies identities that transcend time and materializes networks of social relations. This brings new possibilities to ethnographic research about processes of making. If we are what we make, as Miller argued, then what are we when we make cloth? In this article we explore the production of cloth as embodied practice: weaving on the back strap loom, bringing goods to market, the practice of teaching weaving, and all of the social relationships and realities that contribute to the production of clothing. The title of this article, 'Her eyes, my body', refers to the relationship between the primary ethnographic interlocutor, Lidia Amanda López de López, and the first author as ethnographer and weaving apprentice. By teaching weaving on the back strap loom in the tradition of her antepasados (ancestors), Lidia facilitated ways of knowing ‐ from the kitchen table to the loom, from her home to the market. Entangled and woven together through dialectics of time and space, private and public, past and present. Warp and weft are woven into cloth, culture and identities.

scholarly journals The archaeology of the social brain revisited: rethinking mind and material culture from a material engagement perspective

2020 ◽  
pp. 105971232094194
Author(s):  
Anna M Barona
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Technological Evolution ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Relational Models ◽  
Engagement Theory ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Engagement ◽  
The Relationship

The social brain hypothesis (SBH) has played a prominent role in interpreting the relationship between human social, cognitive and technological evolution in archaeology and beyond. This article examines how the SBH has been applied to the Palaeolithic material record, and puts forward a critique of the approach. Informed by Material Engagement Theory (MET) and its understanding of material agency, it is argued that the SBH has an inherently cognitivist understanding of mind and matter at its core. This Cartesian basis has not been fully resolved by archaeological attempts to integrate the SBH with relational models of cognition. At the heart of the issue has been a lack of meaningful consideration of the cognitive agency of things and the evolutionary efficacy of material engagement. This article proposes MET as a useful starting point for rethinking future approaches to human social cognitive becoming in a way that appreciates the co-constitution of brains, bodies and worlds. It also suggests how MET may bridge archaeological and 4E approaches to reconsider concepts such as the ‘mental template’ and Theory of Mind.

scholarly journals Reframing Entrepreneurship via Identity, Techné, and Material Culture

Humanities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Victoria E. Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Technology And Innovation ◽  
New Models ◽  
Embodied Practice ◽  
Social Biases ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
English Equivalent

Entrepreneurship is typically understood as capitalist, but new models are emerging; these new models, like Welter et al.’s “everyday-entrepreneur,” can be understood in the tradition of techné, in which entrepreneurship is an embodied practice balancing the sociality of identity politics and the materiality of objects and infrastructures. With no English equivalent, techné is typically understood as either art, skill or craft, but none of the placeholders provide a suitable encapsulation of the term itself (Pender). Examining identity against the backdrop of entrepreneurship illuminates the rhetorical ways entrepreneurs cultivate and innovate the processes of making, especially in terms of the material cultures that this process springs from and operates within. Intersectional issues related to entrepreneurial identity present opportunities for diversification and growth in the existing scholarship. A reframing of entrepreneurial identity and continued development of Welter et al.’s everyday-entrepreneurship is argued for, showing how social biases render gender and objects invisible. The article uses data from an on-going study to demonstrate how reframing entrepreneurial identity uncovers the ways in which systemic biases are embedded in the relationship between identity and everyday things. The case study delves into connections between identity, technology, and innovation illustrating how entrepreneurial identity can be seen as a kind of techné, which helps readers better understand identity in relation to material objects and culture—including the biases at work there.

Exploring generational intelligence as a model for examining the process of intergenerational relationships

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1107-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
SIMON BIGGS ◽  
IRJA HAAPALA ◽  
ARIELA LOWENSTEIN
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Critical Awareness ◽  
Experiential Approach ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Main Emphasis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Generational Consciousness

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to examine an emerging model of intergenerational relationships that takes as its starting point the degree to which it is possible to place oneself in the position of a person of another age, the ‘age-other’. The paper explores an experiential approach that draws on both sociological thinking on ‘generational consciousness’ and a debate in family gerontology on the relationships between conflict, solidarity and ambivalence. The main emphasis is on the processes of generational experience, and a working distinction is made between the informational ‘intelligence’ that is culturally available to social actors and the degree to which it is possible ‘to act intelligently’. The latter itemises the steps that would need to be taken to become critically self-aware of age as a factor in social relations, including the relative ability to recognise one's personal generational distinctiveness, acquiring understanding of the relationship between generations, critical awareness of the value stance being taken toward generational positions, and finally, acting in a manner that is generationally aware. The paper concludes with a consideration of how sustainable generational relations can be encouraged and the implications for future research into intergenerational relationships.

scholarly journals Variations of Social Pedagogy – Explorations of the Transnational Settlement Movement

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Koengeter ◽  
Wolfgang Schroeer
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Social Pedagogy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Settlement Movement ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Relationship

Both the German and the international discourses on social pedagogy are shaped by a diachronic perspective on its history, which takes nationally differing developments as its starting point as a matter of course, and thus sees socio-pedagogical thinking as having its roots in particular nation states. In our article, however, we wish to take a synchronic, transnational perspective, and to show, by means of the transnational development of the settlement movement, that a socio-pedagogical constellation has developed transnationally. After considering examples of the transnational development of the settlement movement in the USA, Germany and Canada, we will reconstruct variants of socio-pedagogical thinking using key publications from the settlement movements. Rather than focusing on historical attempts at definition undertaken by those regarded as the classic proponents of social pedagogy, this essay is concerned with identifying a socio-pedagogical constellation within which various definitions are present synchronically, and can always be read from various intersections of national, disciplinary, theoretical etc. positionings. The socio-pedagogical constellation, as we derive it from the transnational settlement movement, concentrates on the relationship between a diagnosis of social conditions, the pedagogical organization of social relations, and the expansion of normatively defined agency. This trilateral socio-pedagogical constellation is presented at the end of the essay and positioned in relation to other socio-pedagogical attempts at definition.

Title: Challenges of field research. Between involved participant and outside observer

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-126
Author(s):  
Claudia Chovgrani ◽  
Magdalena Cieślikowska ◽  
Katarzyna Odyniec
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Field Researcher ◽  
The Given ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Difficult Situations

The article is a theoretical contribution that deals with problems of field researcher. Shows difficulties related to researcher's morality, their role as a witness and an observer, describes etic and emic research. The authors begin their deliberations with an in-depth description of the essence of the relationship created between the arrived researcher and rooted in the given research community. They review anthropological research, pointing to valuable discoveries of field researchers, and do not bypass the description of difficult situations related to the experience of social relations that can not be experienced or described adequately from the privacy of an office.

Music, Knowledge and the Sociology of Sound

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 48-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martyn Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Sound Art ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Sociology Of Music ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Relationship

The sociology of music has often concentrated less on analysing and understanding the specificity and meanings of musical material culture as both an object and a process and more about ransacking music for insights into wider social relations like class, race and gender. The social constitution of music and the musical constitution of the social deserve a more sustained attempt at explicating relations and musical forms. This paper looks at the literature on what is specifically sociological about music and why music is important for sociology but also begins to problematize the relationship between social science and material culture by moving beyond popular music studies and the study of music more generally to examine the sociology of sound and sound art. We argue that this raises difficulties for the whole concept of the social as part of a human science and that new sound studies have to have a more nuanced and critical understanding of sociological epistemologies and the objects and processes they seek to explicate at the same time as understanding the material formation of music. Questions of knowledge and meaning are embedded in music and the paper concludes by thinking about knowledge and the materiality of music as knowledge.

The Impact of Ancient Genome Studies in Archaeology

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 277-298
Author(s):  
Omer Gokcumen ◽  
Michael Frachetti
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Anthropological Perspective ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The study of ancient genomes has burgeoned at an incredible rate in the last decade. The result is a shift in archaeological narratives, bringing with it a fierce debate on the place of genetics in anthropological research. Archaeogenomics has challenged and scrutinized fundamental themes of anthropological research, including human origins, movement of ancient and modern populations, the role of social organization in shaping material culture, and the relationship between culture, language, and ancestry. Moreover, the discussion has inevitably invoked new debates on indigenous rights, ownership of ancient materials, inclusion in the scientific process, and even the meaning of what it is to be a human. We argue that the broad and seemingly daunting ethical, methodological, and theoretical challenges posed by archaeogenomics, in fact, represent the very cutting edge of social science research. Here, we provide a general review of the field by introducing the contemporary discussion points and summarizing methodological and ethical concerns, while highlighting the exciting possibilities of ancient genome studies in archaeology from an anthropological perspective.

scholarly journals Materielle Minder: Om at huske med genstand og krop

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolette Makovicy
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Physical Training ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Craft Knowledge ◽  
Specific Object ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
The Relationship

Nicolette Makovicy: Material Memories: On Remembering with Object and Body We live surrounded by cultural objects, either of our own making, or appropriated from other sources through purchase or gift. This article is an exploration of how our interaction with material culture can affect how we remember, and inquires into the wider implications this has on knowledge and memories which circulate in social relations and across generations. The specific object of study is handmade bobbin lace, its production and circulation in the central Slovak provincial town of Banská Bystrica and its surrounding villages. The author takes a critical stance towards the conventional notion that objects can act as analogues for memory, as illustrated by Aristotle’s memoria. Instead, the author attempts to explore what an approach which underscores memory as a spontaneous recall. The article first deals with the relationship between skill, an embodied form of knowledge which relies on the physical training of the body to perform precise movements, and the product of this knowledge, the lace, as a means of transferring craft knowledge between makers. It is argued that the body and the senses are indispensable to this transfer, the key to the understanding and memorization of knowledge being physical reproduction. The second part of the article deals with lace articles as an element of household décor. It is shown that lace articles, while all being spoken of as making permanent memories through their materiality, most often have shifting meanings attached to them determined by a frequent circulation between households. Finally, it is suggested that the emphasis on materiality is used by the informants as a discursive device in their attempts to ground themselves socially and historically. 

scholarly journals Editorial

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (15) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
John Ellis ◽  
Dana Mustata
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Present Form ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Web

Television’s material culture offers a starting point into this exploration of television’s current status. Artefacts and material traces are imbued with social relations. They unearth for us the web of users, uses and meanings associated to television, both in its historical and present form. This edition of VIEW explores many ways in which television’s material heritage can be repurposed or exploited, bringing to the fore new emergent uses for this older medium.

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