Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc.

Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method Author(s): Jules David Prown Source: Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1982), pp. 1-19 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1180761 Accessed: 07/09/2010 18:42

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http://www.jstor.org Mind in Matter

An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method

Jules David Prown

LTHOUGH ART MUSEUMS, historical What is Material Culture? societies, museums of history and tech- nology, historic houses, open-air mu- Material culture is the study through artifacts of seums, and museums of ethnography, science, and the beliefs-values, ideas, attitudes, and assump- even natural history, have long collected, studied, tions-of a particular community or society at a and exhibited the material of what has come to be given time. The term material culture is also fre- called material culture, no comprehensive academic quently used to refer to artifacts themselves, to the philosophy or discipline for the investigation of body of material available for such study. I shall material culture has as yet been developed. Re- restrict the term to mean the study and refer to the cently, however, there has been increased scholarly evidence simply as material or artifacts. interest in the subject, as witnessed by the estab- Material culture is singular as a mode of cultural lishment of this periodical, WinterthurPortfolio, de- investigation in its use of objects as primary data, voted specifically to material culture; graduate pro- but in its scholarly purposes it can be considered grams in material culture at University of Delaware, a branch of cultural history or cultural anthropol- University of Notre Dame, and Boston University; ogy. It is a means rather than an end, a discipline an experimental Center for American Art and rather than a field. In this, material culture differs Material Culture at Yale University; and a substan- from art history, for example, which is both a dis- tial amount of innovative scholarship, especially in cipline (a mode of investigation) in its study of his- such emerging academic areas as folk life and cul- tory through art and a field (a subject of investi- tural geography (a selective material culture bibli- gation) in its study of the history of art itself. ography is appended below). These developments Material culture is comparable to art history as a and activities have been spontaneous and largely discipline in its study of culture through artifacts. uncoordinated responses to a perceived scholarly As such, it provides a scholarly approach to artifacts need and opportunity. This essay attempts to de- that can be utilized by investigators in a variety of fine material culture and considers the nature of fields. But the material of material culture is too the discipline. It makes no claim to be either the diverse to constitute a single field. In practice it first or the last word on material culture, but it does consists of subfields investigated by specialists-cul- seek to illuminate the subject and to provide a basis tural geographers or historians of art, architecture, for further discussion. It also proposes a particular decorative arts, science, and technology. methodology based on the proposition that arti- Material culture as a study is based upon the facts are primary data for the study of material obvious fact that the existence of a man-made ob- culture, and, therefore, they can be used actively ject is concrete evidence of the presence of a human as evidence rather than passively as illustrations.' intelligence operating at the time of fabrication. The is that made or Jules David Prown is professor, Department of the History underlying premise objects of Art, Yale University. modified by man reflect, consciously or uncon- There are material culture studies that do not require ob- ject analysis, in part because they address questions posed by the very existence of artifacts that lead to the consid- directly economic studies that deal with artifacts often statis- eration of external evidence. This is particularly true of socio- abstractly, tically, to address issues of class, patronage, patterns of usage, ? 1982 by The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum. levels of technology, availability of materials, means of distri- All rights reserved, 0084-0416/82/1701-0001$02.00. bution, and so on. 2 WinterthurPortfolio

sciously, directly or indirectly, the beliefs of indi- scious ordering makes us uncomfortable with the viduals who made, commissioned, purchased, or terminological coupling of base material and lofty used them, and by extension the beliefs of the culture.Nevertheless, the term materialculture, if not larger society to which they belonged. The term ideal, has the advantage of being concise, accurate, material culture thus refers quite directly and effi- and in general use. ciently, if not elegantly, both to the subject matter of the study, material, and to its purpose, the un- Material derstanding of culture. The word material in material culture refers to a Despite its concision and aptness, the term ma- broad, but not unrestricted, range of objects. It terial culture seems unsatisfactory, indeed, self-con- embraces the class of objects known as artifacts- tradictory. Material is a word we associate with base objects made by man or modified by man. It ex- and pragmatic things; culture is a word we associate cludes natural objects. Thus, the study of material with lofty, intellectual, abstract things. Our unease culture might include a hammer, a plow, a micro- with this apparent disjunction is not superficial; it scope, a house, a painting, a city. It would exclude derives from a fundamental human perception of trees, rocks, fossils, skeletons. Two general obser- the universe as divided between earth and sky. That vations should be made here. First, natural objects empirically observed opposition of lower and higher are occasionally encountered in a pattern that in- provides a powerful and pervasive metaphor for dicates human activity-a stone wall or a row of the distinctions we make between such elemental trees in an otherwise random forest, a concentra- polarities as material and spiritual, concrete and tion of chicken bones in a pit or a pile of oyster abstract, finite and infinite, real and ideal. In its shells, topiary or a clipped poodle, a tattooed body theological formulation this metaphor invariably or a prepared meal. In the broadest sense these locates heaven upward, above the earth, accessible natural materials are artifacts-objects modified by not to the body but only to the mind or spirit (with man-and are of cultural interest. Second, works mortification of the flesh [material] one way to of art constitute a large and special category within achieve spiritual ends), and places hell in the bowels artifacts because their inevitable aesthetic and oc- of the earth, down deep in the midst of matter. casional ethical or spiritual (iconic) dimensions Material things are heir to all sorts of ills-they make them direct and often overt or intentional break, get dirty, smell, wear out; abstract ideas re- expressions of cultural belief. The self-consciously main pristine, free from such wordly debilities. expressive character of this material, however, The Western conception of history is that it has raises problems as well as opportunities; in some been characterized by man's increasing under- ways artifacts that express culture unconsciously standing and mastery of the physical environment, are more useful as objective cultural indexes.3 For by the progressive triumph of mind over matter. the moment, however, let it simply be borne in The evidence of human history seems to confirm mind that all tangible works of art are part of ma- our sense that abstract, intellectual, spiritual ele- terial culture, but not all the material of material ments are superior to material and physical things. culture is art. This has led inevitably to a hierarchical ordering The range of objects that fall within the com- that informs our apprehension and judgment of pass of material culture is so broad as to make some human activities and experiences.2 This uncon- system of classification desirable. Sorting by phys- ical materials does not work because of the multi- 2 For example, poetry, because more abstract, is considered plicity of substances used, even at times in a single loftier than prose, chess than wrestling, or the practice of law artifact. The same is true of methods of fabrication. In the world of the more than collecting garbage. scholarship The most mode of classification is abstract subjects-mathematics, philosophy, literature-are more promising by highly regarded than concrete and practical subjects such as function. The following list is arranged in a se- engineering. Such ordering takes place even within the material of that from the more are not value quence categories progresses realm of artifacts where all things equal. Higher to the more utilitarian. has been attached to works of art than to utilitarian craft objects decorative (or aesthetic) since the Renaissance when a distinction was made between the arts, which require intellectual activity and creative imagination for Thomas while in their making, and the crafts, which require greater physical pursuit gentlemen (for example, Jefferson), the actual labor of has been carried out exertion and mechanical ingenuity. Even in a specific art such physical building by laborers of the lower classes. In in the nineteenth as painting, there has long been an ordering of genres, ranging sculpture the realization of the form in the marble from history painting, which springs from the painter's imag- century, indwelling was the work of the out was the work ination, at the top of the scale, to still-life painting, the repli- artist; hacking replications of stonemasons. cation of worldly objects, at the bottom. In architecture, the 3 See the section on below. mental activity of design has been considered an appropriate veracity Mind in Matter 3

1. Art (paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, value is quite persistent. More transient or variable photography) are those values that have been attached by the 2. Diversions (books, toys, games, meals, the- people who originally made or used the object, by atrical performances) us today, or by people at any intervening moment. 3. Adornment (jewelry, clothing, hairstyles, A value that accrues from utility will inhere as long cosmetics, tattooing, other alterations of the as an object continues to be useful and can return body) when an obsolete object again becomes useful 4. Modifications of the landscape (architecture, (wood stoves in an oil shortage). In addition to town planning, agriculture, mining) material and utilitarian values, certain objects have 5. Applied arts (furniture, furnishings, recep- aesthetic value (art), some possess spiritual value tacles) (icons, cult objects), and some express attitudes to- 6. Devices (machines, vehicles, scientific instru- ward other human beings (a fortress, a love seat) ments, musical instruments, implements) or toward the world (using materials in their nat- ural condition as opposed to reshaping them). These categories are broad; they undoubtedly Obviously, then, objects do embody and reflect require modification and refining; the list is in- cultural beliefs. But, although such embodiments tended simply to define the terrain and suggest of value differ in form from verbal and behavioral the outlines of a system. Many objects straddle cat- modes of cultural expression, they do not neces- egories, but taxonomic shortcomings do not cause sarily differ in character or content. In the follow- analytical problems. Classification for purposes of ing regards, however, objects do constitute distinc- manageability and discussion does not affect the tive cultural expressions. actual process of material culture analysis described below which applies to all artifacts. Although the Surviving Historical Events range of categories suggests the potential applica- Objects created in the past are the only historical bility of a variety of specialized techniques and occurrences that continue to exist in the present. methodologies, no systematic attempt is made in They provide an opportunity by which "we en- this general essay to correlate categories of objects counter the past at first hand; we have direct sen- with particular analytical methods or with the pro- sory experience of surviving historical events."4 duction of particular kinds of cultural data. How- Artifacts may not be important historical events, ever, further consideration is given to these cate- but they are, to the extent that they can be expe- gories in the final section. rienced and interpreted as evidence, significant.

More Representative Why Material Culture? Henry Glassie has observed that only a small per- centage of the world's population is and has been Why should one bother to investigate material ob- literate, and that the people who write literature jects in the quest for culture, for a society's systems or keep diaries are atypical. Objects are used by a of belief? Surely people in all societies express and much broader cross section of the population and have expressed their beliefs more explicitly and are therefore potentially a more wide-ranging, openly in their words and deeds than in the things more representative source of information than they have made. Are there aspects of mind to be words.5 They offer the possibility of a way to un- discovered in objects that differ from, complement, derstand the mind of the great majority of nonlit- supplement, or contradict what can be learned erate people, past and present, who remain oth- from more traditional literary and behavioral erwise inaccessible except through impersonal sources? records and the distorting view of a contemporary

Inherent and AttachedValue 4Jules David Prown, "Style as Evidence," WinterthurPortfolio The most obvious cultural belief associated with 15, no. 3 (Autumn 1980): 208. Peter Gay has observed that "the most undramatic work of art the same causal material objects has to do with value. There are presents precisely puzzles as the eruption of a war, the making of a treaty, or the different kinds of value. One, intrinsic in the fabric rise of a class" (Art and Act: On Causesin History-Manet, Gropius, of an is established the of the Mondrian [New York: Harper & Row, 1976], p. 3). object itself, by rarity 5 materials used. Such value will inhere in the Henry Glassie, "Meaningful Things and Appropriate object Myths: The Artifact's Place in American Studies," in Prospects: for as long as the material continues to be valuable. An Annual of AmericanCultural Studies, ed. Jack Salzman, vol. 3 With gold or silver or precious stones, this kind of (New York: Burt Franklin, 1977), pp. 29-30. 4 WinterthurPortfolio literary elite. This promise perhaps explains why is essential for cultural understanding, are conse- many of the leading early proponents, indeed pi- quently not perceivable in what a society expresses. oneers, of material culture have come from the They can, however, be detected in the way in which field of folklore and folk life and have studied ver- a society expresses itself, in the configuration or nacular objects. Such study has required a consid- form of things, in style.6 Stylistic evidence can be erable amount of scholarly innovation. Vernacular found in all modes of cultural expression, whether objects pose interpretive difficulties because our verbal, behavioral, or material. But a society puts scholarly traditions and experience, especially in a considerable amount of cultural spin on what it regard to art, architecture, and the decorative arts, consciously says and does. Cultural expression is have focused on high style objects. less self-conscious, and therefore potentially more The theoretical democratic advantage of arti- truthful, in what a society produces, especially such facts in general, and vernacular material in partic- mundane, utilitarian objects as domestic buildings, ular, is partially offset by the skewed nature of what furniture, or pots. in fact survives from an earlier culture. A primary factor in this is the destructive, or the preservative, Cultural Perspective effect of particular environments on particular Perhaps the most difficult problem to recognize materials. Materials from the deeper recesses of and surmount in cultural studies is that of cultural time are often buried, and recovered archaeolog- stance or cultural perspective. The evidence we ically. Of the material heritage of such cultures, study is the product of a particular cultural envi- glass and ceramics survive in relatively good con- ronment. We, the interpreters, are products of a dition, metal in poor to fair condition, wood in the different cultural environment. We are pervaded form of voids (postholes), and clothing not at all by the beliefs of our own social groups-nation, (except for metallic threads, buttons, and an odd locality, class, religion, politics, occupation, gender, clasp or hook). age, race, ethnicity-beliefs in the form of assump- Inherent and attached value, discussed above, tions that we make unconsciously. These are biases is another major element in what survives. A sig- that we take for granted; we accept them as mind- nificant aspect of this is taste, or, more specifically, lessly as we accept the tug of gravity. Is it possible changes in taste over the years. A "degree-of-so- to step outside of one's own cultural givens and phistication" scale, ranging from rude vernacular interpret evidence objectively in terms of the beliefs at one end to high style at the other, comes into of the individuals and the society that produced play. The calibrations on this scale have obvious that evidence? If not, if we are irredeemably biased implications of social class. High style objects, some- by our own unconscious beliefs, if we are hopelessly times of precious materials and fabricated with culture bound, then the entire enterprise of cul- technical skill that elicits admiration, tend to be tural interpretation should be avoided since our preserved; ruder objects, which for economic rea- interpretations will inevitably be distorted. It is pos- sons sometimes have much less invested in them sible to argue, as Arnold Hauser does in response in terms of the quality of the material or the crafts- to the contention of Karl Marx that we see all things manship, simply may not last as long or, if they do, from the perspective of our social interest and our tend eventually to be discarded as junk. Objects view is therefore inevitably distorted, that once we with iconic or associational value are preserved, but become aware of the problem we can struggle when they lose that association (religious paintings against subjectivity, against individual and class in- in a secular society, photographs of unknown ances- terests, and can move toward greater objectivity.7 tors), they become disposable. Awareness of the problem of one's own cultural Even allowing for the distortions of survival, it bias is a large step in the direction of neutralizing remains true that objects can make accessible as- the problem, but material culture offers a scholarly pects, especially nonelite aspects, of a culture that approach that is more specific and trustworthy than are not always present or detectable in other modes simple awareness. The study of systems of belief of cultural expression. through an analysis of artifacts offers opportunities to circumvent the investigator's own cultural per- Veracity 6 Certain fundamental beliefs in any society are so For an extended discussion of this issue, see Prown, "Style that never need to be ar- as Evidence," esp. pp. 197-200. generally accepted they 7 Arnold Hauser, "Sociology of Art," in Marxism and Art: ticulated (see Cultural Perspective below). These Writings in Aestheticsand Criticism, ed. Berel Lang and Forrest basic cultural assumptions, the detection of which Williams (New York: David McKay Co., 1972), p. 272. Mind in Matter 5 spective. By undertaking cultural interpretation values as well as historical facts. But it would be a through artifacts, we can engage the other culture delusion to assume we acquire complete access to in the first instance not with our minds, the seat of the belief systems of a culture through its material our cultural biases, but with our senses. "This af- survival. Cultural expression is not limited to fective mode of apprehension through the senses things. But the techniques of material culture that allows us to put ourselves, figuratively speak- should be part of the tool kit of the well-equipped ing, inside the skins of invididuals who commis- cultural scholar. The obverse of this disclaimer is sioned, made, used, or enjoyed these objects, to see the argument advanced here: although the study with their eyes and touch with their hands, to iden- of artifacts is only one route to the understanding tify with them empathetically, is clearly a different of culture, it is a special, important, and qualita- way of engaging the past than abstractly through tively different route. An investigation that ignores the written word. Instead of our minds making material culture will be impoverished. intellectual contact with minds of the past, our senses make affective contact with senses of the past."8 Theoretical Background The methodology of material culture, with its affective approach that aspires to the objectivity of Culture and Society scientific method, affords a procedure for over- The definition given at the beginning stated that coming the distortions of our particular cultural the study of material culture can be considered a stance, and, of almost equal importance, it makes methodological branch of cultural history or cul- visible the otherwise invisible, unconscious biases tural anthropology. Material culture is the object- of our own cultural perspective. Awareness of what based aspect of the study of culture. As with cul- one normally takes for granted occurs only in the tural history and cultural anthropology, the study forced confrontation with another norm. For ex- of material culture touches on the allied concerns ample, we become particularly aware of gravity as of social history and social anthropology. A society, gravity when it is not there, as in our observation a group of interdependent persons forming a sin- of astronauts working in a spacecraft. When we gle community, has a culture, a set of beliefs. Social identify with another culture through the affective, history and social anthropology study the relation- sensory apprehension of its artifacts, we have an ships between individuals or groups of individuals opportunity to accept the other culture as the norm in a society, especially the patterns and details of and become aware of the differentness, the special the daily existence of large subgroups as defined qualities, of our own culture. The culture being by class, race, religion, place of residence, wealth, studied provides a platform, a new cultural stance, and so forth. Cultural history and cultural anthro- for a perspective on our culture. This can be of pology study the peculiar achievements, especially interest for its own sake, but specifically and prac- intellectual, that characterize a society, such as art, tically in terms of the study of material culture, science, technology, religion. Obviously there are increasing awareness of the biases of one's own cul- significant areas of overlap. Society and culture are tural perspective helps achieve objectivity in sub- inextricably intertwined, and their study cannot sequent investigations. and should not be isolated except for analytical The fact is that cultural perspective is only a purposes. problem or liability to the extent that one is una- Cultural history and cultural anthropology, ware or unable to adjust for it. Indeed, it is our with their sister subjects of social history and social quarry, the cultural patterns of belief, of mind, that anthropology, thus constitute a field-of-interest we seek. umbrella that arches over the study of material cul- ture.9 The theoretical underpinnings of the study Final Note will be noted in the sections that follow but are not A disclaimer should be entered regarding the com- explored extensively in view of their complexity pleteness of what can be learned from material cul- and the introductory nature of this essay. ture. In certain instances-prehistoric or preliter- ate societies, for example-artifacts constitute the 9 only surviving evidence, so there is little choice but The location of material culture within the broader con- to use them as best one can to determine cultural fines of cultural and social history and anthropology does not, however, preclude the utilization in the study of material culture of investigative techniques normally associated with other fields 8 Prown, "Style as Evidence," p. 208. and disciplines. These techniques will be discussed later. 6 WinterthurPortfolio

Structuralismand Semiotics glecting others. This is why an object or an entire The fundamental purpose of the study of material category of objects falls in and out of fashion. The culture is the quest for cultural belief systems, the object stays relatively the same, but people change patterns of belief of a particular group of people and cultural values change. From the time it is cre- in a certain time and place. The methodology is to ated, an artifact can arouse different patterns of some extent structuralistin its premise that the con- response according to the belief systems of the per- figurations or properties of an artifact correspond ceivers' cultural matrices. The sequence of syn- to patterns in the mind of the individual producer chronic patterns that could be triggered by an ar- or producers and of the society of which he or they tifact resembles the sequence of frames in a motion were a part. picture; in theory, if we could retrieve all the pat- Modern linguistic theory has made us aware of terns, we would have a film of history. In practice, the significance of language as the manifestation only a few patterns are accessible, primarily those of man's capacity, indeed compulsion, to impose of the original fabricator and the modern per- structure on the world and his experience of it. ceiver. Artifacts, then, can yield evidence of the Man's structuring, apparent in language, is the only patterns of mind of the society that fabricated reality he knows. His reality is relative, endlessly them, of our society as we interpret our responses changing, true only for the moment; it is the em- (and nonresponses), and of any other society in- pirical shadow of a hypothetical underlying per- tervening in time or removed in space for which manent universe, a world of ideas, a unified field. there are recorded responses. The reality man experiences is created by man, and language, the naming of that reality, is a manifes- Determinism tation and measure of the current structure of real- The fundamental attitude underlying the study of ity in any given place and time. It is therefore sig- material culture is, as with most contemporary nificant cultural evidence as the reflection of man's scholarship, a pervasive determinism.This statement mental structuring. But language is not solely hu- may seem to belabor the obvious, but a strict de- man. Animals communicate by arrangements of terminism not only underlies the other theoretical sounds and, in the case of dolphins, for example, aspects of the study of material culture but also may have languages. Perhaps more special to man dictates the methodological procedures outlined than language is the capacity to make implements below whereby, through a variety of techniques, an and, more special yet, objects for aesthetic gratifi- object is unpacked. The basic premise is that cation. There is a language of form as there is a every effect observable in or induced by the object language of words; a naming through making as has a cause. Therefore, the way to understand the there is a naming through saying. That man ex- cause (some aspect of culture) is the careful and presses his human need to structure his world imaginative study of the effect (the object). In the- through forms as well as through language is a ory, if we could perceive all of the effects we could basic premise of the structuralist approach to ma- understand all of the causes; an entire cultural terial culture.10 universe is in the object waiting to be discovered. The methodology of material culture is also The theoretical approach here is modified, how- concerned with semioticsin its conviction that arti- ever, by the conviction that in practice omniper- facts transmit signals which elucidate mental pat- ception leading to omniscience is not a real possi- terns or structures. Complementing the structur- bility. External information-that is, evidence drawn alist premise and semiotic promise of the from outside of the object, including information interpretation of artifacts is the knowledge that regarding the maker's purpose or intent-plays an artifacts serve as cultural releasers. Perceivers in essential role in the process. Such an approach is other societies who have a different mix of cultural inclusive, not exclusive. values, some in concert and some at variance with Although the fundamental concern of material those of the producing society, respond positively culture is with the artifact as the embodiment of to certain artifacts or aspects of artifacts while ne- mental structures, or patterns of belief, it is also of interest that the fabrication of the object is a man- 10 A measure of the potency of the language of form is the ifestation of behavior, of human act. As noted role that matter-and man's experience of the physical world- above in the discussion of culture and society, belief plays in language. This is obviously true with poetic imagery and behavior are intertwined. The and metaphor, where concretions vivify abstractions, and in the inextricably imagery of vernacular expressions which articulate and expose material culturalist is, therefore, necessarily inter- fundamental human perceptions of the realities of existence. ested in the motive forces that condition behavior, Mind in Matter 7 specifically the making, the distribution, and the descriptive techniques of art history and archae- use of artifacts. There is an underlying assumption ology, and in this there is more overlap with the that every living being acts so as to gratify his own natural than with the social sciences. The initial self-interest as he determines that interest to be at descriptive steps in the approach to objects resem- any given moment. This is an inevitable by-product bles fieldwork in a science such as geology, and of the fundamental concern with cause and effect. description can also involve the use of scientific Thus such issues as the availability of materials, the equipment. demands of patronage, channels of distribution, The method of object analysis proposed below promotion, available technology, and means of ex- progresses through three stages. To keep the dis- change, which require the investigation of external torting biases of the investigator's cultural per- evidence, are pertinent. spective in check, these stages must be undertaken in sequence and kept as discrete as possible. The analysis proceeds from description, recording the Methodology internal evidence of the object itself; to deduction, interpreting the interaction between the object and How does one extract information about culture, the perceiver; to speculation, framing hypotheses about mind, from mute objects? We have been and questions which lead out from the object to taught to retrieve information in abstract form, external evidence for testing and resolution." words and numbers, but most of us are functionally illiterate when it comes to interpreting information Description encoded in objects. Several academic disciplines, Description is restricted to what can be observed notably art history and archaeology, routinely work in the object itself, that is, to internal evidence. In with artifacts as evidence and over the years have practice, it is desirable to begin with the largest, built up a considerable amount of theoretical and most comprehensive observations and progress sys- methodological expertise. Work done in these tematically to more particular details. The termi- fields is often directed inward, toward the accu- nology should be as accurate as possible; technical mulation and explication of information required terms are fine as long as they can be understood. by the discipline itself. In the history of art this The analyst must, however, continually guard takes the form of resolving questions of stylistic and against the intrusion of either subjective assump- iconographic influence, of dating and authorship, tions or conclusions derived from other experi- of quality and authenticity. In archaeology it is the ence. basic task of assembling, sorting, dating, and quan- This is a synchronic exercise; the physical object tifying the assembled data. But art history and ar- is read at a particular moment in time. The object chaeology also have fundamental concerns with the is almost certainly not identical to what it was when cultures that produced the objects, and the meth- it was fabricated; time, weather, usage will all have odologies of these two fields, to the extent that they taken their toll. At this stage no consideration is provide means for the interpretation of culture, given to condition or to other diachronic techno- are essential to material culture. At present they logical, iconographic, or stylistic influences. are the two disciplines most directly relevant to the Substantialanalysis. Description begins with sub- actual work of investigating material culture. But, stantial analysis, an account of the physical dimen- as they are usually defined, they are not adequate sions, material, and articulation of the object. To to the total task. The exploration of patterns of determine physical dimensions, the object is mea- belief and behavior, in an intellectual borderland where the interests of humanities and social sci- 1 The issue of sequence undoubtedly needs further study. ences merge, requires an openness to other meth- I am aware that the insistence upon strict adherence to a par- ticular series of seems and an uncalled-for odologies, including those of cultural and social steps rigid arbitrary, fettering of the investigator. Yet, I have come to appreciate the history, cultural and social anthropology, psycho- virtues of sequence empirically on the basis of considerable class- history, sociology, cultural geography, folklore and room experience with artifact analysis. It simply works better. folk life, and But the to ma- The closer the sequence suggested below is followed, especially linguistics. approach in regard to the major stages, and the greater the care taken terial culture set forth below dictates that these with each analytical step before proceeding, the more pene- broader concerns and methodologies not be brought trating, complex, and satisfying the final interpretation. Ob- the is and there is a natural into play until the evidence of the artifact itself has viously, procedure time-consuming, impatience to move along. My experience has been, however, been plumbed as objectively as possible. Therefore that this should be resisted until the analysis is exhausted and the first steps are most closely related to the basic the obvious next question requires advancing to the next step. 8 WinterthurPortfolio sured and perhaps weighed. The degree of pre- rative designs or motifs, inscriptions, coats of arms, cision depends on the interests of the investigator. or diagrams, engraved or embossed on metal, If he will be considering a series of objects, a certain carved or painted on wood or stone, woven in tex- amount of precision is desirable, given the possible tiles, molded or etched in glass. subsequent significance of and need for quantifi- Formal analysis. Finally, and very important, is cation. However, it is not desirable to carry decimals analysis of the object's form or configuration, its to the point of losing an immediate sense of di- visual character. It is useful to begin by describing mension in a welter of numbers; real signifi- the two-dimensional organization-lines and areas- cance may lie in general measure, as with Glassie's either on the surface of a flat object or in elevations discovery of the modal importance of spans and or sections through a solid object.14 Next comes the cubits in the vernacular architecture of Virginia.12 three-dimensional organization of forms in space, Next comes a description of the materials-what whether actual in a three-dimensional object or they are, how extensively they are used, and the represented in a pictorial object. Subsequently, pattern of their distribution throughout the object. other formal elements such as color, light, and tex- Finally, the ways in which the materials are put ture should be analyzed with, as in the case of the together in the fabrication of the object, the artic- initial description of materials, an account of their ulation, should be noted. For example, with fabrics nature, extent, and pattern of distribution (rhythm) one would look at the weave; with metals, the weld- in each case. Determination of the degree of detail ing, soldering, riveting; with wood, the dovetails, must be left to the discretion of the investigator; dowels, miterjoints, mortise-and-tenon joints, glue. too much can be almost as bad as too little, the Substantial analysis is a descriptive physical in- forest can be lost for the trees. ventory of the object. It is achieved with the assis- tance of whatever technical apparatus is appropri- Deduction ate and available. Simple tape measures and scales, The second stage of analysis moves from the object ultraviolet lamps and infrared photographs, or itself to the relationship between the object and the complex electron microscopes and X-ray defrac- perceiver. It involves the empathetic linking of the tion machines are all basically enhancements of one's material (actual) or represented world of the object ability to perceive and take the measure of the phys- with the perceiver's world of existence and expe- ical properties and dimensions of the object.13 rience. To put it another way, the analyst contem- Content.The next step in description is analysis plates what it would be like to use or interact with of content. The investigator is concerned simply the object, or, in the case of a representational ob- with subject matter. This is usually a factor only ject, to be transported empathetically into the de- with works of art or other decorated objects. The picted world. If conditions permit, he handles, lifts, procedure is iconography in its simplest sense, a uses, walks through, or experiments physically with reading of overt representations. In the case of a the object. The paramount criterion for deductions painting, this may simply be what is represented, drawn from this interaction is that they must meet as if the work were a window on the world (or on the test of reasonableness and common sense; that some kind of world). Content may include deco- is, most people, on the basis of their knowledge of the physical world and the evidence of their own life should find the deductions to be 12 Folk in Middle Virginia: A Structural experience, Henry Glassie, Housing unstrained of the evidence elicited Analysis of Historic Artifacts (Knoxville: University of Tennessee interpretations Press, 1975). the If these deductions are not 13 by description. The procedures outlined here for collecting internal evi- as reasonable, must be con- dence have other in- readily acceptable they significant applications. Physical analysis, sidered and deferred to the next cluding the use of scientific apparatus, can provide crucial in- hypothetical stage. formation in regard to authenticity. Other procedures noted Although the analyst in the deductive stage below, notably formal analysis, can also be exceedingly useful moves from a concern with the internal in These of the meth- away solely determining authenticity. applications evidence of the and himself into the odology can take place at any time, but it is preferable for the object injects issue of authenticity to be resolved before the analysis proceeds investigation, the process remains synchronic. Just beyond description.If a material culture investigator is to arrive as the is what it is at the moment of at cultural conclusions on the basis of material evidence, the object only specimen being studied must be an authentic product of the 14 summarized culture in question. The investigator must determine what as- The procedures of formal analysis briefly are however, pects of the objects, if any, are not authentic products of the here will be familiar to any art historian. They not, culture. A fake may be a useful artifact in relation arcane, and investigators need not be specially trained. Formal presumed one to the culture that produced the fake, but it is deceptive in analysis is a matter of articulating and recording what sees, relation to the feigned culture. preferably in a systematic sequence as suggested here. Mind in Matter 9 investigation, and as such may be more or less dif- one's external knowledge to see if it can be deduced ferent than what it was when it was made, so too from the object itself and, if it cannot, to set that the analyst is what he is at the moment of investi- knowledge aside until the next stage. gation. Ten years hence he might respond differ- In the case of a pictorial object, there are a ently to the object because of different interests number of questions that may be addressed to and and a different mix of life experiences near the answered by the object itself, especially if it is rep- surface of conscious awareness. The particular en- resentational. What is the time of day? What is the counter between an object with its history and an season of the year? What is the effect on what is individual with his history shapes the deductions. depicted of natural forces such as heat and cold or Neither is what they were nor what they may be- the pull of gravity? In the relation between the come. Yet the event does not occur within a vac- depicted world and our world, where are we po- uum. The object is at least in some ways what it was sitioned, what might we be doing, and what role, or bears some recognizable relationship to what it if any, might we play? How would we enter pictorial was; the same, although less germane, is true of space? What transpired prior to the depicted mo- the investigator. The object may not testify with ment? What may happen next? complete accuracy about its culture, but it can di- Emotionalresponse. Finally, there is the matter of vulge something. It is the analyst's task to find out the viewer's emotional response to the object. Re- what it can tell and, perhaps, deduce what it can actions vary in kind, intensity, and specificity, but no longer tell. it is not uncommon to discover that what one con- Sensoryengagement. The first step in deduction sidered a subjective response is in fact widely is sensory experience of the object. If possible, one shared. A particular object may trigger joy, fright, touches it to feel its texture and lifts it to know its awe, perturbation, revulsion, indifference, curios- heft. Where appropriate, consideration should be ity, or other responses that can be quite subtly dis- given to the physical adjustments a user would have tinguished. These subjective reactions, difficult but to make to its size, weight, configuration, and tex- by no means impossible to articulate, tend to be ture. The experience of architecture or a town- significant to the extent that they are generally scape would involve sensory perceptions while shared. They point the way to specific insights moving through it. If the object is not accessible, when the analyst identifies the elements noted in then these things must be done imaginatively and the descriptive stage that have precipitated them. empathetically. In the case of a picture, the en- I have stressed the importance of attempting gagement is necessarily empathetic; the analyst to maintain rigorous discreteness and sequence in projects himself into the represented world (or, in the stages of object analysis. In fact, this is difficult Alois Riegl's sense, considers that the pictorial space if not impossible to achieve. Deductions almost in- continues into the viewer's world of existence) and variably creep into the initial description. These records what he would see, hear, smell, taste, and slips, usually unnoted by the investigator, are un- 15 feel. desirable since they undercut objectivity. But in Intellectual engagement.The second step is intel- practice, while striving to achieve objectivity and to lectual apprehension of the object. With a tool or maintain the scientific method as an ideal, the in- implement this is a consideration of what it does vestigator should not be so rigorous and doctrinaire and how it does it, and in such cases may need to in the application of methodological rigor as to in- precede or accompany the sensory engagement. hibit the process. Vigilance, not martial law, is the The degree of understanding at this stage (prior appropriate attitude. Often an individual's subjec- to the admission of external evidence) depends on tive assumptions are not recognized as such until the complexity of the object and the analyst's prior considerably later. In fact, it is instructive in regard knowledge and experience. It is unnecessary to ig- to understanding one's own cultural biases, one's nore what one knows and feign innocence for the own cultural perspective, to mark those assump- appearance of objectivity, but it is desirable to test tions that remain undetected the longest in the descriptive stage. These are often the most deeply 15 See Sheldon Nodelman, "Structural in Art and Analysis rooted cultural assumptions. Anthropology," in Structuralism,ed. Jacques Ehrmann (Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1970), p. 87. This splendid article sets forth succinctly the basis for contemporary structural Speculation analysis in the early art historical work of the German school from the itself in de- of Strukturforschung, as initiated and devel- Having progressed object especially by Riegl to the interaction oped by Guido von Kaschnitz-Weinberg, and the anthropologie scription between object and per- structuraleof Claude Levi-Strauss. ceiver in deduction, the analysis now moves com- 10 WinterthurPortfolio pletely to the mind of the perceiver, to speculation. inary analysis-description, deduction, specula- There are few rules or proscriptions at this stage. tion-is complete and the investigation has moved What is desired is as much creative imagining as to external evidence. There should be continual possible, the free association of ideas and percep- shunting back and forth between the outside evi- tions tempered only, and then not too quickly, by dence and the artifact as research suggests to the the analyst's common sense and judgment as to investigator the need for more descriptive infor- what is even vaguely plausible. mation or indicates other hypotheses that need to Theoriesand hypotheses.The first step in specu- be tested affectively. lation is to review the information developed in the descriptive and deductive stages and to formulate hypotheses. This is the time of summing up what Investigation of External Evidence has been learned from the internal evidence of the object itself, turning those data over in one's mind, Allied Disciplines developing theories that might explain the various Pursuing a program of research in material culture effects observed and felt. Speculation takes place based on questions and hypotheses arising from in the mind of the investigator, and his cultural artifact analysis involves the techniques and ap- stance now becomes a major factor. However, since proaches of any of a dozen or more subjects or the objective and deductive evidence is already in disciplines divided between the humanities and the hand, this cultural bias has little distorting effect. social sciences.16 The following can or do utilize Indeed, it is an asset rather than a liability; it fuels artifacts evidentially: archaeology, cultural geog- the creative work that now must take place. Because raphy, folklore and folk life, history of art, social of cultural perspective, it is impossible to respond and cultural anthropology, and social and cultural to and interpret the object in exactly the same way history. Several others that do not to any substantial as did the fabricating society, or any other society degree are linguistics, psychohistory, and psychol- that may have been exposed to and reacted to the ogy. Since the study of material culture as a distinct object during its history and perigrinations. Where discipline (rather than as a part of art history or there is a common response, it provides an affective archaeology) is relatively recent and the theoretical insight into the cultural values of another society. substructure is still being formulated, the list of Where there is divergence, the distinctive cultural allied disciplines is probably not complete. perspective of our society can illuminate unseen The different relationships the allied disciplines and even unconscious aspects of the other culture. bear to material culture need clarification. In re- There was gravity before Newton; there was eco- gard to the three disciplines that do not use objects, nomic determinism before Marx; there was sex the'relationship is one-sided; material culture does before Freud. We are free to use the insights af- not contribute significantly to, but profits from, forded by our cultural and historical perspective, techniques and insights of linguistics, psychohis- as long as we do not make the mistake of assigning tory, and psychology.17 Conversely, one subject area intentionality or even awareness to the fabricating that does use artifacts, folklore and folk life, profits culture. Our cultural distance from the culture of from, but does not make a readily definable or the object precludes affective experience of those distinctive methodological contribution to, material beliefs that are at variance with our own belief sys- culture. Folklore and folk life seems out of place tems, but the process now begun can lead to the on the list since it refers to a broad area of inves- recovery of some of those beliefs. That is a goal of tigation; as a field rather than a discipline, it is the the exercise. Programof research.The second step in the spec- ulative stage is developing a program for valida- 16 There is some question in academic circles whether social that a for of and cultural history belong to the humanities or to the social tion, is, plan scholarly investigation sciences. This the usefulness of a This perhaps suggests lessening questions posed by the material evidence. distinction between the study of human beliefs, values, and his- shifts the inquiry from analysis of internal evidence tory on the one hand and the study of human behavior on the to the search for and of external evi- other, and the need for a new term to encompass those disci- investigation that the interaction of human belief and behavior, of plines study dence. Now the methodologies and techniques whether historical or contemporary. 17 various disciplines can be brought into play ac- Inasmuch as the essential purpose of material culture is the for holds but to the nature of the questions raised and quest mind, psychohistory particular promise, cording as yet the methodologies of this equally new (and more contro- the skills and inclinations of the scholar. versial) approach are as rudimentary as those of material cul- The object is not abandoned after the prelim- ture. Mind in Matter 11 opposite of material culture which is a discipline a student in my material culture seminar, Rachel and not a field. In addition to utilizing most of the Feldberg, investigated one mid-eighteenth-century other disciplinary approaches listed here, studies Connecticut desk-and-bookcase. She began by not- in folklore and folk life have made especially ef- ing the number of apertures, then she considered fective use of material evidence, inasmuch as ma- how the openings might have been used by the terial culture is particularly useful for any investi- original owner and hypothesized that they were for gation of nonliterate or quasiliterate societies or sorting and storing papers. Given the desk-and- segments of societies. bookcase's functional associations with reading and The relationship of material culture to other writing, its division into upper case and lower case disciplines that use artifacts is one of common or (as in typefaces), and the possible use of the lower parallel interests rather than interdependence. As section as a press (as in "linen press"), her thoughts noted above, social and cultural history, social and turned to printing. She speculated that if envi- cultural anthropology, and, it might be added, so- sioned in a horizontal plane, this particular desk- ciology can view material culture as simply a meth- and-bookcase had the same number of openings odological subbranch to be utilized when appro- as did a printer's tray. This suggested alphabet- priate. ization, with the usual conflation of certain letters Cultural geography has an especially close con- (p/q, x/y/z), and the use of the apertures for sys- nection with material culture. The explanation may tematic filing. A quantitative survey of similar desk- be that, since cultural geography deals directly with and-bookcases would help to confirm or negate her the shaping influence of man's mind on his physical hypothesis.18 The development of computer tech- environment, it is essentially material culture writ nology makes possible a range and variety of quan- large. As with material culture, its primary evidence titative research previously unmanageable. exists in the form of both artifacts and pictorial Stylistic analysis. The other two aspects of the representations. Cultural geography may be de- descriptive stage, stylistic analysis and iconography, fined as an important branch of material culture also lend themselves to broader diachronic and (as with art, all cultural geography is material cul- geographic consideration. The search for stylistic ture, but not all material culture is cultural geog- influences or sources is a basic art historical pro- raphy); in time the two subjects may turn out to be cedure. Within the broader framework of material aspects of a single discipline. For the moment the culture, tracing stylistic influence has considerable study of each is in its infancy and their precise potential. For example, New England in the six- relationship remains to be determined. teenth century had few if any gravestones. With the beginning of European settlement in the sev- Art History and Archaeology enteenth century, gravestones appeared in the I turn now to the two areas of scholarship that have coastal towns; subsequently their use spread up the had the longest working experience with material river valleys and across the countryside. Since culture-art history and archaeology. The initial gravestones are often inscribed with considerable step in the analytical process, the physical descrip- data regarding the deceased, a corpus of subject tion of objects (including the use of technical ap- information can be assembled about age, sex, re- paratus), is common to both these fields. Moreover ligion, profession, and residence. Gravestones also the most obvious methodological steps away from have a formal design component. Analysis of the the internal evidence and into external evidence evolution and spread of gravestone styles in New also spring from, although they are not limited to, England, previously a stylistic tabula rasa, might these fields. lead to a significant study of the dispersion of style, Quantitativeanalysis. Quantitative analysis, more of how formal information is disseminated in a common to archaeology than to art history, is most the extension of frequently descriptive physical 18 This is for illustrative and to other in order to determine the example simplified purposes analysis objects should not be interpreted as reductive either of the possibilities distribution, in time and in space, of certain forms, for quantification studies or of the scope of Feldberg's inquiry. materials, or modes of construction. Quantitative Most quantitative studies would deal with a much larger number of can also use the and others variables, as indeed would Feldberg's study of desk-and-book- study original object cases if actually undertaken. Also, her investigation into external like it for considering abstract questions, such as evidence led to various other issues not apposite here such as the relationship of objects to patrons or users vis- the use of letters of credit in the eighteenth century which might be filed in the the a-vis class, bookcase; velocity of correspondence of a religion, politics, age, wealth, sex, place New England businessman; locks and safekeeping; and the issue of residence, profession, and so on. For example, of reconciling gentlemanliness and commerce. 12 WinterthurPortfolio given culture.19 Like radioactive isotopes injected house, the stove was not a celestial watcher but an into the bloodstream of a cancer patient, the grave- iron Caliban that needed itself to be watched. How stones would make visible the culture and its pat- does one explore the mental landscape, the beliefs, tern of diffusion. to validate or deny such speculations? Sermons, Iconology.Iconography is also a basic art histor- private diaries, poetry, and fiction are among the ical procedure for the investigation of art influ- sources for the investigator seeking not only facts encing art. There is a gain in research potential but also the hints or suggestions of belief. Even if when iconography moves to iconology and studies such hypotheses or speculations remain unproved, are made of the intellectual matrix-the web of they are not necessarily invalid. myth, religion, historical circumstance-that spawned the legends and imbue the iconographic elements with their intellectual and symbolic power. Observations on the Categories of Artifacts The study of iconology leads ineluctably to the study of semiotics; all objects, not only works of art Although all man-made things are, in theory, useful with highly developed narrative, imagic, meta- evidence of cultural mind, in practice different cat- phoric, and symbolic content, are the transmitters egories of material yield different kinds of infor- of signs and signals, whether consciously or sub- mation in response to different investigative tech- consciously sent or received. And the interpreta- niques. Some categories are responsive to familar tion of cultural signals transmitted by artifacts is scholarly methodologies; some seem obdurate and what material culture is all about. mute. This final section reviews the categories of Another student in my seminar, Kimerly Ror- the material of material culture and considers their schach, investigated an eighteenth-century Con- evidential promise. necticut tall clock. Traditional research into exter- nal evidence, which is part of any investigation into Art material culture, led to estate inventories in an at- The fine arts in general have two advantages as tempt to determine the normal placement of such material for the study of material culture. One, clocks and to prove patterns of distribution by already discussed, is the applicability of the expe- economic status. Similarly, clockmakers' account rience and methodologies of an existing discipline, books were consulted for information about shop the history of art. The other is that objects of art practices. But the deductive and speculative stages possess considerable underlying theoretical com- of object analysis framed qualitatively different plexity (as opposed to technical or mechanical com- questions and hypotheses. The tall clock stands slim plexity), embodying by definition aesthetic and and erect, slightly larger than human scale. It has even ethical decision making.20 On the other human characteristics, and yet it is both less and hand, as noted in the discussion of veracity, the more than human. It has a face behind which a self-consciousness of artistic expression makes art surrogate brain ticks relentlessly. It is not capable less neutral as cultural evidence than are mundane of independent life, yet once wound its mechanism artifacts. Moreover, there is a special problem ticks on and its hands move without rest. The hu- connected with the consideration of works of art man occupants of a house are mortal with an al- as cultural evidence, what might be called the aes- loted span of time to use or waste while the clock thetic dilemma. measures its irretrievable passage. Could the clock Hauser has argued that there is no relationship have played a metaphorical role as the unblinking between an object's aesthetic value and its cultural toller of time who watches the inhabitants of the significance. Each is judged by different criteria, house, the agent of some extrahuman, divine and each set of standards is perfectly valid as long power? A student in another course, Joel Pfister, as the two are not confused. It is self-deluding to analyzed a Victorian coal-fired parlor stove, a very consider an object aesthetically better because it has different object. A useful black imp who ate coal cultural potency, or to elevate an object as a cultural voraciously and had to be emptied (its fecal ashes document because it accords with our sense of aes- a material by-product in contrast to the abstract thetic quality. The aesthetic dilemma arises when output of the clock), who would inflict a nasty burn 20 on the unwary and could, if untended, destroy the "The more complex an object is, the more decisions its design required, the more a particular mind in operation can 19 See James Deetz, In Small Things Forgotten:The Archaeology be discovered behind it" (Henry Glassie, "Folkloristic Study of of Early AmericanLife (Garden City, N.Y: Anchor Press/Double- the American Artifact," in Handbook of American Folklore, ed. day, 1977), pp. 64-90. Richard Dorson [forthcoming]). Mind in Matter 13 an analytical approach breaks down the complex- accoutrements of theatrical performance, that did ity of a work of art into simple categories and in not fit into the other obvious categories. These ob- so doing destroys the aesthetic experience irretriev- jects share the quality of giving pleasure, or enter- ably.21The question is whether the analytical pro- tainment to the mind and body, and the category cedures of material culture wreak this kind of aes- has an affinity with, although separate from, art. thetic damage. This is a category in the process of definition and The initial steps of the methodology proposed further discussion of it must be deferred. here are completely descriptive and do not com- promise the aesthetic response. Close examination Adornment of the object accords with accepted procedures for Adornment, especially clothing, has, like the ap- aesthetic evaluation. And the second stage of de- plied arts, the advantage of touching on a wide ductive and interpretative analysis involves objec- range of quotidian functions and of embodying a tive procedures that only enhance and magnify fa- relatively uncomplicated partnership of function miliarity, understanding, and aesthetic appreciation. and style that permits the isolation and study of Danger lies in the third stage-speculation. The style. The potency of this material as cultural evi- aesthetic dilemma does not in fact arise from anal- dence can be tested by the simple act of criticizing ysis; it arises from speculation. The aesthetic ex- someone's clothes; the reaction is much more in- perience of a work of art (or music or literature) tense than that aroused by comparable criticism of can be affected, even permanently altered, by ex- a house, a car, or a television set. Criticism of cloth- ternal associations-a distasteful experience at the ing is taken more personally, suggesting a high cor- time of perception, the intrusion of a parody, an relation between clothing and personal identity and unsolicited, uncongenial interpretation. Specula- values. Although personal adornment promises to tion, especially by an "expert," can color, perhaps be a particularly rich vein for material culture stud- permanently, the perception of others. Regardless ies, to date little significant work has been done of the validity of the interpretation, the state of with it. mind of the listener or reader is altered, innocence is lost, what has been said cannot be unsaid, the Modificationsof the Landscape aesthetic experience is irredeemably changed. The most essential quality of an object for the study Students of material culture who have applied of material culture, after survival, is authenticity. the analytical techniques, including speculation, The optimum object is the gravestone because it have in fact found their aesthetic pleasure in the is geographically rooted and attended by a great object enhanced, not compromised. But aesthetic deal of primary data; we are quite secure in at- damage is done not to the interpreter, for whom taching it to a particular cultural complex. There the speculations are arrived at freely, but to his has been little or no faking of gravestones and only audience. This, however, is one of the pitfalls in a limited amount of recarving or relocating. Al- the play of ideas, especially in the area of aesthetic though an individual gravestone can be considered criticism. Speculation is essential to a democracy of as sculpture, gravestones and graveyards (or cem- ideas, and the danger of restricting ideas or asso- eteries) fundamentally belong to a broader cat- ciations is much more serious than the occasional egory, modifications of the natural landscape. Ar- aesthetic damage caused by their expression. Imag- chitecture, town planning, and indeed all aspects inative critical interpretation may change an object of the human-shaped landscape (cultural geog- irretrievably, but our ideas and our perceptions are raphy) share with gravestones the same quality of continually being altered by new ideas and percep- rootedness that ties artifacts to a particular fabri- tions. That is life. The "aesthetic dilemma" turns cating culture. Although lacking the inscribed data out on close inspection to be less a real problem of grave markers, architecture has much greater and more in the order of normal intellectual grow- complexity. Having been built for human occu- ing pains. pancy, it responds in very direct ways to people's needs. Glassie has observed that historically ori- Diversions ented folklorists have concentrated on architecture In attempting to classify artifacts, I initially estab- because the material survives, it is geographically lished a miscellaneous category for things, such as sited, and it is complex. It is both a work of art and books, toys and games, prepared meals, and the a tool for living, combining aesthetic with utilitarian drives at a variety of conceptual levels.22 Town and 21 22 Hauser, "Sociology of Art," pp. 274-76. Glassie, "Folkloristic Study," p. 15. 14 WinterthurPortfolio city planning, that is, architecture on a larger scale, and mental problems. Early economies developed share these qualities. In the case of less complex a salt trade. Salt containers historically occupied a alterations in the physical landscape a distinction place of honor at the dinner table, and it mattered must be made between conscious shaping, as in who was seated above or below the salt. Salt appears plowing or the construction of a stone wall, and frequently in biblical imagery, representing desic- simple behavioral consequences, such as accumu- cation and purity. People dream of salt. Human life lations of animal bones indicative of eating habits. emerged from brackish pools, the saline content of which is encoded in the human bloodstream. Salt AppliedArts has ritual functions associated with baptism; salt Applied arts (furniture, furnishings, receptacles), water is put on the infant's lips in Catholic baptis- like architecture, are a partnership of art and craft, mal rites; the forms of early trencher salts derive of aesthetic appeal and utility.23They lack the root- from medieval and renaissance baptismal fonts. edness of architecture and, except in the case of Many body fluids are salty-blood, urine, tears- material retrieved archaeologically, present greater and in some cultures are associated with fertility hazard in associating objects with their originating rites. These scattered observations suggest the mul- culture. Applied arts, however, have an advantage tiple possibilities for cultural investigation that can in their simplicity of function which makes it easier arise from one simple applied arts object. to isolate that potent cultural indicator, style. As discussed above in Cultural Perspective,the funda- Devices mental values of a society are often unexpressed Devices-implements, tools, utensils, appliances, because they are taken for granted.24 As a result, machines, vehicles, instruments-constitute the they are manifest in style rather than in content. most problematic and, to date, a relatively unpro- Stylistic expression can be affected by functional ductive range of artifacts for the study of material utility or conscious purposefulness. The configu- culture. Much of the scholarship on devices has ration of a tool or machine is almost completely been taxonomic, recording functional details and dictated by its use; the configuration of a story or mechanical variations. Little writing has been cul- a play or a painting may be similarly conditioned turally interpretive except on the automobile, a by its content or message. In architecture and the machine with powerful personal stylistic over- applied arts form and function are partners. Where tones.25 Theoretical writing that relates devices to the function is simple and constant, as with teapots culture has dealt with the stylistic modification of or chairs, it can be factored out. The remaining machine forms to make them culturally acceptable in the variable is style, bespeaking cultural values and at- and pervasive images of technology popular titudes in itself and in its variations across time, mind.26 But there has been little cultural analysis and no theoretical lit- space, class, and so forth. of the devices themselves, or There is, of course, significant cultural evidence erature has as yet established a technological art and in the utilitarian aspect of artifacts. Both architec- scientific counterpart to the link between ture and the applied arts, by their use in a wide beliefs.27 Certain devices have particular promise For clocks and range of daily activities, especially domestic, are for cultural interpretation. example, bearers of information about numerous, some- watches, linked with a significant aspect of everyday have cultural times quite private, reaches of human experience. human experience-time-surely sig- Another student in my material culture course, nificance. Ocular devices-telescopes, microscopes, Barbara Mount, studied a seventeenth-century 25 For Roland Barthes, "The New Citroen," in Boston trencher salt. We take salt for be- example, granted Mythologies,trans. Annette Lavers (1972; reprint ed., New York: cause our contemporary (largely processed) diet Hill & Wang, 1978), pp. 88-90. more than satisfies our Yet the 26 John Kasson, Civilizing the Machine: Technologyand Repub- requirements. phys- lican Values in York: Grossman Pub- for salt is if America, 1776-1900 (New iological need fundamental; deprived lishers, 1976), and Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Tech- of it we, like all animals, would have severe physical nology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965). 23 27 this will be achieved in time. Glassie of the The English usage of the term applied arts is preferable to Perhaps speaks the American decorativearts for material culture purposes. The importance of banjos as well as banjo playing for folklorists be seen whether this term is intended to describe objects whose essential character ("Folkloristic Study," p. 4), but it remains to assertion will be validated. Glassie had discussed is that they combine aesthetic and utilitarian roles. Since the banjos briefly noun arts common to both terms takes care of the aesthetic earlier in Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States of aspect, it seems sensible to have the descriptor emphasize utility, (1968; reprint ed., Philadelphia: University Pennsyl- vania but did not follow to that is, applied rather than decorative. Press, 1971), pp. 22-24, through any 24 there. See also Prown, "Style as Evidence," pp. 69-71. cultural interpretations Mind in Matter 15 eyeglasses-also readily suggest themselves as ex- tive stage, are largely derived from the practice of tensions of the fundamental human activity of art history, and when artifacts are subjected to that seeing. Although there may be cultural potency in analysis, they are analyzed as if they were works of a wide range of device materials, a question per- art. Where devices respond to this mode of anal- sists. Does the fact that they have been less suc- ysis-as, for example, in the perceptions of my col- cessfully interpreted as cultural evidence than have league Margaretta Lovell regarding sewing ma- other categories of artifacts simply reflect the pres- chines, buttons and switches, calculators and buses- ent state of scholarship and scholarly interest, or they do so not in terms of what they do, but rather are there fundamental differences in the nature of in the way they are formed and the way in which certain artifacts that affect their value as cultural they operate, that is, their style. If the cultural sig- evidence? We will consider one aspect of this ques- nificance of a device is perceivable in its style rather tion in the conclusion. than its function, then there is reason to conclude that, for purposes of material culture analysis, the Conclusion aesthetic aspects of artifacts are more significant We have discussed the categories of the materials than the utilitarian. Why this should be the case is of material culture in a sequence moving from the explained by Jan Mukarovsky.28 Mukarovsky ob- more aesthetic to the more utilitarian with, given serves that all products of creative human activity the broad scope of the categories, considerable reveal intention. In the case of implements (he overlap. Does the position of a general category or speaks specifically of implements, but his argument a specific artifact on such an aesthetic/utility scale holds for all devices), that intention, purpose, or provide any index of evidential promise? aim is directed externally, outside of the implement The cultural interpretation of artifacts is still itself. An art object, on the other hand, is self-ref- too young as a scholarly enterprise to permit final erential; it is an aim, an intention in itself. Man is or fixed generalizations regarding the comparative a user of an implement-he applies it externally; potential of artifacts as evidence. But the weight of man is a perceiver of art-he refers it to himself. scholarly evidence, if one simply compares the body Virtually all objects have an artistic dimension; only of cultural interpretation in the literature of art with devices do we encounter a class of objects that history, architectural history, and the history of the approaches the purely utilitarian. Even there, most applied arts with the literature of the history of devices incorporate some decorative or aesthetic science and technology, suggests that it is the aes- elements, and every device can be contemplated as thetic or artistic dimensions of objects, to whatever an art object, a piece of abstract sculpture, com- extent and in whatever form they are present, that pletely apart from utilitarian considerations. open the way to cultural understanding. The It is characteristic of an implement that a straightforward statements of fact in purely utili- change or modification affecting the way it accom- tarian objects provide only limited cultural insights. plishes its task does not alter its essential nature as The fundamental reason why the cultural inter- a particular type of implement. But a change, even pretation of works of art has been more fruitful a minor change, in any of the properties of a work than that of devices is the disparate character of of art transforms it into a different work of art. the material itself. Art objects are the products of Mukarovsky's example is a hammer. Viewed as an the needs of belief; devices are the products of implement, a hammer that has its grip thickened physical necessity. Inasmuch as material culture is or its peen flattened is still a hammer; but the ham- fundamentally a quest for mind, for belief, works mer as an art object, an organization of certain of art are more direct sources of cultural evidence shapes and colors and textures, becomes a different than are devices. Although devices clearly express object if the organization of design elements is al- human attitudes and values in regard to achieving tered, if the plain wooden handle is painted red or control over the physical environment, the corre- the cleft in the claws is narrowed. The explanation spondence between the device and the need that for this, and here we enter the realm of semiotics, brought it into existence is so direct that there derives from Mukarovsky's premise that every seems little need for further And investigation. yet, 28 Lovell and I a course in material there are devices such as clocks and with Margaretta cotaught telescopes culture. Jan Mukarovsky, "The Essence of the Visual Arts," in clear cultural significance. Moreover, devices re- Semioticsof Art: Prague School Contributions,ed. Ladislav Matejka spond as well as the other of artifacts do and Irwin R. Titunik (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977), pp. categories and and Function: Selected to the outlined earlier in this 229-44, Structure, Sign, Essays, trans. analytical procedures and ed. John Burbank and Peter Steiner (New Haven and Lon- essay. Those procedures, especially in the descrip- don: Yale University Press, 1978), pp. 220-35. 16 WinterthurPortfolio product of human activity has an organizing prin- Selective Bibliography ciple and a unifying intention. Different observers may interpret that intention in different ways, but the artist(s) had a single purpose in mind. It may be unrealistic and unrealizable, indeed quixotic, for For more specific and comprehensive material culture see the worksof Simon Bronner, a maker to intend that his purpose be understood bibliographies, J. Henry Glassie,and Thomas J. Schlereth listed below. by all perceivers equally-in the same way and in the same degree as he understands it. Nevertheless, any fabricator must have that purpose, even un- General Works in order to make. Therefore, consciously, objects Fernand. on Material Civilization are that a mode of com- Braudel, Afterthoughts signs convey meaning, and Capitalism.Baltimore and London:Johns Hopkins munication, a form of language. The object may, University Press, 1977. a outside like words, communicate specific meaning . Capitalism and Material Life, 1400-180o. New of itself. This is the case with a content-filled art York: Harper & Row, 1975. object such as a magazine illustration, or with an Bronner, Simon J. Bibliographyof AmericanFolk and Ver- implement, a device. Such objects relate to exter- nacularArt. Bloomington, Ind.: Folklore Publications nals. But a work of art that is that Group, 1980. self-referential, . in the of Material of an artistic in and of itself rather than a "Concepts Study Aspects is, sign American Folk Culture." Folklore Forum 12 (1979): communicative sign relating to some outside func- 133-72. tion, establishes understanding among people "that ."From Neglect to Concept: An Introduction to does not pertain to things, even when they are rep- the Study of MaterialAspects of American Folk Cul- resented in the work, but to a certain attitudetoward ture." FolkloreForum 12 (1979): 117-32. things, a certain attitude on the part of man toward ."ResearchingMaterial Culture: A Selected Bib- the entire that surrounds him, not to liography." Middle Atlantic Folklife AssociationNewsletter, reality only October pp. that which is in the 1981, 5-12. reality directly represented Chavis, "The Artifact and the of case."29The art is self-sufficient, and John. Study History." given object Curator 7 (1977): 156-62. when evokes in the a cer- apprehended perceiver Ferguson,E. "The Mind's Eye: Nonverbal Thought in tain attitude toward reality which resonates with Technology." Science 197 (1977): 827-36. the maker's attitude toward reality. Because we can- Fleming, E. McClung. "Artifact Study: A Proposed not really experience a reality other than the one Model."In WinterthurPortfolio 9, edited by Ian M. G. into which we are locked in time and space, we can Quimby, pp. 153-73. Charlottesville: University Press make limited use of an artifact as an infor- of Virginia, 1973. only Michel.The Order New York: mational as a referent outside of itself, as an Foucault, of Things. Vintage sign, Books, We are the of 1973. implement. dependent upon degree Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command. New between its world and ours. We Siegfried. identity original York:Oxford UniversityPress, 1948. still be able to use the hammer as a hammer, may Glassie, Henry. "FolkloristicStudy in the American Ar- but we may not be able to cure illness with a sha- tifact." In Handbookof AmericanFolklore, edited by Rich- man's rattle. We can, however, use the work of art ard Dorson, forthcoming. as an autonomous artistic sign, as an affective link . "Meaningful Things and Appropriate Myths: with the culture that called it into being, because The Artifact'sPlace in AmericanStudies." In Prospects: of our shared as An Annual of American Cultural Studies, edited by Jack physiological experience perceiv- vol. New York: Burt Franklin, ers and our with the maker and Salzman, 3, pp. 1-49. sensory overlap 1977. the This is the and the original perceivers. gift . Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern promise of material culture. Artifacts are disap- UnitedStates. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania pointing as communicators of historical fact; they Press, 1968. tell us something, but facts are transmitted better Hindle, Brooke. "HowMuch is a Piece of the True Cross by verbal documents. Artifacts are, however, ex- Worth?" In Material Culture and the Study of American York: cellent and indexes of culture, concretions Life, edited by Ian M. G. Quimby, pp. 5-20. New special W. W. of the realities of belief of other in other Norton, 1978. people Michael Owen. The Hand Made and Its Maker. times and and able to be Jones, Object places, ready reexperi- Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California enced and interpreted today. Press, 1975. 29 Mukafovsky, "Visual Arts," p. 237, and Structure,Sign, and Kouwenhoven, John. The Arts in Modern American Civi- Function, p. 228. lization. New York: W. W. Norton, 1967. Mind in Matter 17

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