Anthropology of material culture

Pre-requisites: No preconditions

Course objectives: Presentation and critical evaluation of theoretical and methodological approaches to studying the material culture, with an emphasis on contemporary academic concepts (post structuralism) and modern examinations: constructing identity, mass consumption, globalization and the politics of representation in museum collections and settings.

Course description: II - Methodology for the analysis of artifacts III - The structure and (or) action - studying the material culture of structuralism and following IV - The subjects and objects - Contemporary assessment in the study of material culture

Learning Outcomes: 1. To recognize and understand the major changes in the conceptualization of culture and material culture of the late 19th century to the present 2. To identify the key authors, their concepts and theoretical assumptions, and critical reception of each of them

Literature/Reading:

• Ildiko Erdei, Antropologija potrošnje, XX vek, Beograd, 2008
• Victor Buchli (ur.), The Material Culture Reader, Berg, 2002
• Deniel Miler, Artefakti i značenje predmeta, III program Radio Beograda 1/2 (125/126), Beograd, 2005, 247-273.
• I. Kopitoff, The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process, u: A.Appadurai, (ed.), The Social Life of Things, Commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
• P. Burdije, Kuća ili obrnuti svet, u: Nacrt za jednu teoriju prakse, Zavod za udžbenike i nastavna sredstva, Beograd, 1999, 39-52
• J. Hoskins, Biographical Objects, How Objects Tell Stories about People’s Lives, Routledge, 1999, 1-13
• Eleana Yalouri, „The Acropolis Past and Present“, „Contesting Greek Identity Between Local and Global“, in: The Acropolis, Global Fame, Local Clame, Berg, Oxford, New York, 2001, 27-48, 77-100
• B. McVeigh, Commodifying Affection, Authority and Gender in the Everyday Objects of Japan, Journal of Material Culture, Vol.1, No. 3, Sage Publications, London and New Delhi, November 1996, 291-312
• Annette B. Weiner, Inalienable Possessions, The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving, Univesity of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford, 1992, 1-43