The cultural life of objects

Abstract

What do people do with objects? And what do objects do to people? This chapter builds a four-part argument about the weaker and stronger versions of the interrelation between objects and subjects. The first section explores classic approaches to how objects are imbued with special significance, as well as contemporary approaches on attachment and affordances. Then we explore what objects allow us to do, the kinds of subjects they enable us to be, and the kinds of activities they block or enable. We conclude by offering some reflections about what this means for the study of meaning-making and of culture at large.

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