This course will introduce you to the study of material culture, the physical stuff that is part of human life.  Material culture includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings.  This course is organized into six sections, the first introducing the idea of material culture, and the other five following the life cycle of an object:

Material:  Before an object becomes recognizable as such, it is a material.  What are the natures of different materials?  Why are objects made of the materials they are?  How did these materials come to be used?

Making:  How are objects made?  How is the information about how to make them passed from person to person?  How does the act of making affect the form of the object?

Designing:  Why do objects have the form they do?  What are the artistic, social, and economic factors that shape the form of objects?

Selling:  How do objects change hands?  How does material culture participate in the circulation of goods? 

Using:  How are objects used?  What are the meanings and roles they have in people’s lives, and how are these sometimes different from what a maker, designer, or seller had in mind?