Week 3 — Social TheorySOCI/ANTH 441 Material CultureAlexandre EnkerliSeptember 17, 2008

Today

•Project talk▫Logistics▫Work with Objects

•Themes in material culture•Theory Tasters

Project Logistics

•Part I due October 1•Can do “prewrite” by September 24•Find thing•Start work on

• Description• Literature

What is it?

•What is it called?•What is it made of?•How are intrinsic elements integrated?•What is it related to?•What is its history?•What is its future?

What does it do?

•What are its effects on the world?▫Material, physical, biological effects▫Psychological, emotional effects▫Social effects

•How does it function?▫Relationship between parts▫Intended uses▫Unintended uses

What does it mean?

•To subject•In group•In cultural context

Diachrony

•History•Story•Genealogy•Biography•Transformation•Shaping•Dynamic

Ethnography

•Cultural diversity•Tradition•Purity•Trash•Representation

Daily Life

•Public/private dichotomy•Domesticity•Use of objects•Ritualization•Sacred/profane

Marxian

•Means of Production•Consumption•Globalization•Commodification•Materialism•Environmentalism•Gift economy

Status and Inequality

•Gender•Age•Class•Ethnicity

Rights

•Property rights•Intellectual property•Cultural heritage•Appropriation

Sociology of Technology

•Technology adoption•Shaping•Science•Engineering•Industrialization•Postmodernism

Subjectivity

•Embodiment•Agency•Aesthetics•Personalization/customization•Value•Fetishism

Themes from Texts?

Theories

•Not stuck on detail•Named or not•Material culture classics•Adapt frameworks•All related

ANT and SI

•Constructivism (non-essentialism)•Post-modernism and post-structuralism•Architecture•Human+Non-human•Agency

Non-Human Agency

•Projection of anthropomorphism (2-sided)•Machines' rights (Hofstadter)•Anthropocentrism

• Human specificity•Anima

• Animals• Animism

Latour Style

•Humour, playfulness•Philosophical•Tour de force•Neither prevent nor advise in project

Latour Terms

•Scene (people and things)•Delegation (give over)•Prescription (order for action: goal and

modification)•Subscription (conform)•De-inscription (deviate)•Obligatory Passage Point (what has to

occur)•Pre-inscription (everything upstream)

ANT Links

•http://www.istheory.yorku.ca/actornetworktheory.htm

•http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/ant_dff.html

•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor-network_theory

Tech World

•Forced adoption•Luddites•Losing jobs to robots•Marrying robots in 50 years?•Technological singularity

Science Culture

•Geek culture•AI

• Hello world• Turing

•Biological machines•Nanotech•Science-Fiction

• Genuine People Personalities (HHGttG)

SI and Architecture

•Things are social•Design matters•Self and Objects•Things and Places•Interactions•Numerous examples (Panopticon, Wailing

Wall, Mall of America, Stonehenge…)•Address theory

Lip-Service

Smith and Bugni Themes

•Visual component (toward sensory)•Proxemics•Intrinsic meaning and possibilities•Physical structure and social structure•Reflect, control, change•Attachment, sacredness•Public/private

SI

•Self as social construction•Self is both subject and object•Learn self by interaction with material

objects•Making sense of the world and creating it

SI and Material Culture

•Communicating self•Embodiment•Extend personality•Reminder of sense of self•Stability•Familiarity•Emotion

Contact with Object

•Tactile•Communication•Bodies and things•Reveals inside

Self and Physical World

•Social relation•Mother as object•Later division humans/non-humans•Objects maintain social attributes

Goffman

•Presentation of self•Face-to-face interactions•Negotiations and drama•Categories of Objects (status,

exotic/indigenous, collective, stigma)•Official/alien uses (intended/unintended)•Social facilitators (conversation piece,

fidget…)

Material Context (Room)

•Co-location•Highlighting/understating•Clustering/dispersing•Status inconsistency (eclectism)•Conformism (cultural norms)•Comment elicitation (conversation piece)

Technological Politics

•Do things have politics? (Langdon Winner)▫Bridge against busses▫Racism of bridge

•Social determinism (“Guns don’t kill people”)

•Technological determinism (“Guns make people kill people”)

Politics and Objects

•Embodiment (engineer social relationships)

•Inherent politics (required relationships)•Imbued (after the fact)

Next Week

•Domesticity and Gender•Private life and social inequality•Places and objects