Module overview
Being human involves an inseparable relationship with things, both made and found. People make things, as things make people, and to envisage a human being who is not in some way formed by the objects they use, wear, live in, venerate or trust in is inconceivable. In this module we explore approaches to the archaeology and anthropology of things/objects/artefacts/material culture. Alongside the methods and theories employed to interrogate and make sense of material culture, we look at how objects provide a key source of evidence for understanding aspects of the human past, including technology, identity, exchange, subsistence practices, power relations and interventions into supernatural worlds. Complementing archaeological approaches, the module offers an introduction to ethnographic studies of people and their material worlds from pre-Contact contexts to modern Britain, highlighting the complex and entangled nature of human-thing relations.