The empire of things : regimes of value and material culture

This text explores ways in which art objects are used to construct identity and cultural difference, and explains how people actually use things - items that are at once concrete and symbolic. North America: School for Advanced Research Press 4e de couv. : Representing a new wave of thinking about material culture studies-a topic long overdue for reevaluation-the essays in this volume take a fresh look at the relationship between material culture and exchange theory and illuminate the changing patterns of cultural flow in an increasingly global economy and the cultural differences registered in "regimes of value." The Empire of Things includes an extensive interview with the late Annette B. Weiner, whose work on exchange theory still inspires contemporary material culture studies. The contributors deconstruct the traditional opposition between "gift" and "commodity" and between supposedly; "alienable" and "inalienable" objects in ceremonies of exchange-whether on the island of Sumba or among middle-class shoppers in North London. They show how objects can become symbols of national identity, in cases ranging from artworks in Australia to lost body parts of past Mexican presidents. They reveal how the movement of objects through different contexts, across borders, or through art exhibitions exposes contradictions and shifting meanings for different constituencies Collection of anthropological essays on contemporary material culture; introductory essay by Myers discusses exchange theory - Weiner's critique via the concept of the inaliable object, value and meaning, gift and commodity opposition; consumption, production and alienation, objectification of social processes and the formation of the subject - reference to sacred objects (central Australia); nationalism; art as material culture - value hierarchy, modernity and primitivism; problems of museum display; papers by Myers on acrylic art and Thomas on Margaret Preston annotated separately