Prospectus

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Visual and Material Culture

Course
2008-2009

In the first part of this two-part course on Visual and Material Culture we will explore the diverse ways in which visual and material culture influence and shape social and political processes and the construction of knowledge in both historical and contemporary societies. Among other things, we will focus on diverse ways of seeing and looking, on the mutual constitution of early anthropology and visuality, on atrocity images, human rights, and technologies of witnessing, on the virtually “’borderless” domain of circulating images and their multiple audiences, and on the nexus of publicity, spectacle and celebrity, as well as the significance of visual icons in contemporary mass culture

In the second part of this two-part course on Visual and Material Culture we will explore the ways in which material culture plays active roles in the construction of meaning in culture. The course will be divided in three parts:

  • an introductory part on how philosophy and anthropology have dealt with the material object;

  • an analysis of the use of the art concept in anthropology;

  • material culture and the phenomenon of collecting.

Coordinator

Methods of instruction

  • lectures: 16 weeks x 2 hours = 32 hours (48 sbu)

  • study of literature: 1400 pages (+/- 90 pp per week) (232 sbu)
    Total of 280 sbu (10 ECTS)

Study material

Part I

  • A course reader will be made available on the first day of class. [nb some via electronic journals, some on reserve in FSW library]

Part II

  • Arjun Appadurai – The Social Life of Things, 1986, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • René Descartes – Abstracts from Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations (1644).

  • Pieter ter Keurs – Condensed Reality: A Study of Material Culture, 2006, Leiden: CNWS Publications.

  • Four articles from Colonial Collections Revisited (ed. by P. ter Keurs), 2007, Leiden: CNWS Publications. 1. P. ter Keurs – Introduction: Theory and Practice of Colonial Collecting. 2. A. Shelton – The Collector’s Zeal: Towards an anthropology of intentionality, instrumentality and desire. 3. M. Wiener – The Magical Life of Things. 4. S. Legêne – Enlightenment, Empathy, Retreat: The cultural heritage of the Ethische Politiek.

  • An article, from Handbook of Material Culture (ed. by C. Pinney et.al.), 2006, Michael Rowlands – Anthropology and Materiality of Things.

Examination

  • Active student participation is required in weekly discussions about the literature.

  • Part I: Assignments consist of weekly AQCIs (7 total, of which one may be missed or a fail). The average grade for the assignments will constitute 50% of the final grade.

  • Part II: Written exam on lectures and literature from the second part of the course (50% of the final grade)

Time table

Lectures (part I and II): Tuesdays 2 September - 16 December 2008, 11-13 h Room CH 11, Pieter de la Court building

Exam: Tuesday 23 December 2008, 9-12 h, room CH10

Retake: Tuesday 27 January 2009, 9-12 h, room 1A12