Material Culture
Theory and Method of Material Culture Studies
During the spring of 2024, I studied Material Culture and its relation to the museum field at the University of West Georgia. During this course, I completed several academic writings concerning this topic such as book reviews, transcriptions, object analyses, etc.
Below there is some information about each of these assignments and links to the full writings.
Book Reviews
I reviewed two books during this course, each of which pertained to material culture-- History of Ancient Egyptian Art, Vol. I, written by Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez, and Highbrow Lowbrow, written by Lawrence Levine. The reviews were also written in this regard, in addition to analyzing the theses of the books and how well they were supported.
Object Analyses
I also created object analyses of two separate objects-- an Obsidian Flake, and an Early 20th-Century Book-- based on systematic approaches, such as those used by the University of Alaska and MoDiP. The central point was the process, not necessarily identification, and the focus was on clarifying existing identification and how analysis benefits the object and its use in museums.
Site Analysis
I also wrote a site analysis on the University of Delaware's Old College Hall, which analyzed the history, significance, and changes made over time to the site. The site itself went beyond the building currently present and traced back to how the native community originally used the land.
Transcription
I also engaged in a basic paleography exercise by utilizing an extant handwritten sample and transcribing it by way of the basic transcription methodologies outlined in Meulen and Tanselle’s “A System of Manuscript Transcription.” I chose to transcribe family letters written during WWII.
Object Class Research
The final culmination of this course was a research paper focusing on a type or class of objects and its impact on material culture studies. The intent was to engage in a broad survey of the academic literature as possible to portray better the breadth of understanding of the chosen object class/type/group. I decided to focus on Shellac Records, or 78 RPM discs.