Culture

Defining culture
Culture is a messy term that people tend to use as a way to explain life neatly. While I am not about to propose an all-encompassing definition here, for the purposes of this wiki and what follows, I define "culture" loosely as 1) intangible (i.e., ideas, languages, memories, etc.), 2) tangible (i.e., physical items in the world that owe their existence to human intercession), 3) systems in place which uphold/encourage/antagonize the intangible and tangible (i.e., politics, religion, morality, etc.). Culture serves as one way to individuate groups (Americans vs Europeans, country folk vs city folk, folklorists vs ethnomusicologists) but it should be noted that culture can also be shared and overlapping. There is always some sense of exchange or give-and-take in between different group of people, so these boundaries we use to separate them from one another are never precise and clear-cut; rather, they are constantly shifting, being torn down, created and re-mixed into something new.

Culture versus Material Culture
I view material culture as a subset of culture. Broadly speaking, the umbrella term of culture also expands outwards to include material culture, Material culture reflects the intangible qualities of culture defined above; that which constitutes material culture cannot be viewed in isolation without first taking into account the social relationships and systems in place that contributed to and created the circumstances for the objects' very being. For instance, a single glass bead can be understood in terms of its formal qualities (yellow, hard, shiny) and functions (decoration, ritual); it can also be interpreted, however, as representing history (what was happening in the world at the time the bead was created, how did there come to be bead factories in the first place?), circulations (why did this bead pass from mother to child, how did it get from Italy to the Americas?), experience (who made this bead, who has used it?), and much more.

How has my understanding of culture changed since the first week of class?
Even now, I still feel unprepared to answer this question of "what is culture" or even "what is material culture," as one class (let alone one decade or one lifetime) is certainly not enough to impart the entirety of knowledge on the subject. I walked away, however, with a much richer understanding and appreciation of culture and material culture with regards to the systems and people behind the scenes.

Before this semester, for instance, I actually did not know the meaning of vernacular architecture: I had assumed it was related to verbal art, and perhaps referred to the linguistic and structural study of folk speech. I didn't even think to consider the second part of the term because I had never thought to study the very buildings that we go in and out of on a daily basis and take for granted. I had only thought of the formal and superficial aspects of architecture (why is that building so ugly, does this door work properly?) without taking into consideration the social/cultural aspects (what sort of memories and place attachments have people created for that building, who made and designed that door?). But I see now that these buildings are very much an important part of material culture - not just for their physical aspects, but also for the very people who inhabit and/or create these spaces.



Beginning our semester with Franz Boas and A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on Native American Art, we had the chance to learn about and compare early ideas and theories on culture and culture groups with those found in the present. Like ancient philosophers and scientists who presented hypotheses and theories for their peers to test and refute or uphold, many early anthropologists also presented what they viewed as original, breaking theories regarding primitive peoples and unilinear evolution. This could partially be attributed to the eurocentrist or colonialist  attitudes and backgrounds of a) the people conducting research towards b) the people being researched. Boas reacted against his contemporaries and predecessors, however, by celebrating the individuality and creativity found in the work of the people he studied (Boas/Jonaitis p. 9). In my notes from 1/24/14, I write that this is an example of cultural relativism: "You don't have to like everything, just appreciate it! ...There's something cool about everyone you visit!" We see a few examples of this turn towards relativism and meaning-centered ethnography in the essays that Boas writes on Northwest Coast artistic forms and cultures; for instance, in his essay on the decorative designs of Alaskan needlecases, Boas makes a point to emphasize the pleasure felt by the maker and not just the pleasure felt by the observer (Boas/Jonaitis p. 277). In my notes, I also connect this to Henry Glassie and the constant striving towards excellence, or something like it, which permeates culture and art.

A Wealth of Thought contains a true wealth of thought and knowledge; we see this most immediately in the excruciatingly detailed descriptions and images of items ranging from masks to spears to blankets. Beyond the formal qualities of these items, however, there is also an acknowledgment of the human activity and labor that went into their creation from conception (the big picture) to decoration (the smallest detail). I try to see this celebration of creation and the realization of human engagement in everything now, from embroidery to landscaping.This book, in addition to some of the ones we read later in the semester (Folk Housing in Middle Virginia, Grace of Four Moons: Dress, Adornment, and the Art of the Body in Modern India, and Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History, just to name a few), instilled in me a greater appreciation of the "stuff" that constitutes material culture and the social life of objects.

Folktropes
popular culture, memes

why focus on craftsmen, rural people, indigenous people; who are the folk that we study?

-Primitive culture, primitive as indigenous/non-modernized, non-urbanized in other works (Annette Weiner, Haidy Geismar)

tradition, authenticity

how do the folk perceive material culture? (creator vs perceiver?)

cultural appropriation