HIST FROM THINGSSteven D. Lubar, W. D. Kingery History from Things explores the many ways objects - defined broadly to range from Chippendale tables and Italian Renaissance pottery to seventeenth-century parks and a New England cemetery - can reconstruct and help to reinterpret the past. Eighteen essays describe how to "read" artifacts, how to "listen to" landscapes and locations, and how to apply methods and theories to historical inquiry that have previously belonged solely to archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and conservation scientists. The contributors demonstrate that artifacts can be prime historical evidence that discloses important facts about the nature of past cultures. The book shows how, for example, the detailed examination of Chinese Zhou bronzes revealed that a factory system of production - nowhere attested to in documentary sources - existed in China as early as the fifth century B.C. Spanning vast time periods, geographical locations, and academic disciplines, History from Things leaps the boundaries between fields that use material evidence to understand the past. It expands and redirects the study of material culture - an emerging field now building a common base of theory and a shared intellectual agenda. |
Contents
Why We Need Things | 20 |
Some Matters of Substance | 41 |
The Interpretation of Artifacts | 74 |
Copyright | |
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Aaron American analysis Annapolis archaeological context archaeology artifacts artisans behavior beliefs Bellefonte bloomery carved cemetery century B.C. ceramic chair Charles Willson Peale Chinese chlorite clay collections context Coolidge family cultural landscape decoration ding early economic engine essays evidence example Folklore Freer hu function gardens genealogy Georgian groups Harappan historians History from Things House human important inscriptions intercultural style vessels interpretation iron Jessica Rawson Kingery locomotive Lubar machines maiolica manufacture Marhaši Maryland State House material culture meaning Mesopotamia metaphor Michael Owen models Mohenjo-daro motifs Museum Native Americans natural nineteenth century objects painting park past pattern blocks pattern language Peale Peale's period political pottery production Prown Qing dynasty reflect relationships ritual role Shang shape slag social society steatite stone street structure suggest symbolic teapot technique Tepe Yahya texts tion town traditional understanding University Press values York Zhou