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| This course focuses on how consumers negotiate desire, difference and power in the most seemingly commonplace material consumption: We will examine the concrete politics invested in things ranging from Barbies to subcultural fashion to household garbage. The course revolves around how a broadly defined archaeology of the modern material world can contextualize everyday goods as symbolically multivalent, politically contested vehicles for inchoate desires and contested social position. Rather than see commodities as flat reflections of pre-existing identities or dominant economic organizations, the course examines how such objects provide insights into who we wish to be as much as who we are, and the class argues that we use goods and their consumption to negotiate, accept, and resist how we are positioned within broader collectives. We will trace the historical development of the relationship between goods and identity from the eighteenth century and identify the systems of inequality that have been reproduced (as well as subverted) through material consumption. The class champions a critical, self-reflective archaeological perspective on cultural and subcultural difference, and we will stress how archaeology's systematic analytical techniques provide a mechanism to probe the technological, social, and ideological meaning in the apparently meaningless minutia that surrounds us everyday. |
Course requirements: the non-negotiable realities
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You will complete two exercises analyzing contemporary
material culture. In the first exercise you will assemble a
time capsule of
contemporary material goods (25% final grade). Your capsule will contain at least 20 items, with
essentially no restrictions on what you can place within them or exactly what
you want your capsule to actually communicate to subsequent generations. You'll
be expected to clearly specify why you included each item and what you want your
time capsule to convey or symbolize.
The second exercise will be an analysis of a contemporary collection. Collecting creates the illusion of adequate representation of the world, but that representation can come in the form of matchbook covers, snowglobes, banana magnets, and any number of serialized assemblages. You will prepare a paper that analyzes a single collection, outlines how it conforms to or departs from our working definition of a "good" collection (e.g., public, pedagogical, etc.), and examines the ways in which it is a reflection of the world or an indication of how the collector wishes the world could be (25% course grade). |
During the semester you will produce a term paper that interprets some object, material space, or class of modern material objects using the concepts and examples examined in class (35%). You will be required to provide a proposal for your term paper subject by February 7. Students who do not turn in a paper proposal by then will automatically lose a letter grade from their paper's final grade, and I reserve the right to reject (or at least negotiate) any unapproved topic: please do not skip the proposal.
Graduate students will complete the normal course exercises and be expected to complete a longer paper that includes some supplementary readings. Please see me for details.
The vast majority of the test material will be introduced and reviewed in class, so class attendance will be key to comprehension. Students who miss two or fewer class meetings will receive a five point attendance grade worth 5% of the course grade. If you miss three class meetings one point will be deducted from your attendance score (i.e., you would receive four attendance points); miss four days and three points will be deducted from the final score, and so on. Excused absences do not count toward your attendance grade if they are documented illnesses, recognized holidays, or have been cleared with me before or shortly after the missed class. If you do not attend on the day your discussion presentation is scheduled, you will not receive any points toward the presentation grade; since this is 5% of your final grade, it is an ill-advised move to skip the discussion.
There will be a take-home final exam due the final week of class (10% of course grade).
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All work in the course is conducted in accordance with the University’s Honor Code. Cheating includes dishonesty of any kind with respect to exams or assignments. Plagiarism is the offering of someone else’s work as your own: this includes taking material from books, web pages, or other students, turning in the same or substantially similar work as other students, or failing to properly cite other research. Please consult the University Bulletin’s academic misconduct policy if you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty. Each student will present one of the readings to the class over the course of the semester (5% of your final grade). You will prepare a written review of the reading for me and direct the class' discussion of the reading: your review should be about one or two pages, and you may do it in a loose outline form. Anybody who does not complete the review will not receive credit for the reading. You can volunteer to present any reading of your choosing on a first-come, first-serve basis; any students who do not sign up by the second class will be assigned a reading. Anybody who does not present their reading will receive no credit. |
| If you cannot complete an assignment on time for any reason, you must contact me. I will only extend a deadline in cases where a student demonstrates sufficient reason to be granted an extension. I can always be contacted after class, you can schedule an appointment, and I check my email virtually everyday. Do NOT wait until after a deadline to talk to me, and do NOT postpone talking to me if you are having any difficulty completing an assignment for any reason. Late assignments will be penalized significantly if you do not negotiate an extension with me beforehand. Students who do not turn in the term paper on time will receive no credit for the assignment. To miss any of the exercises or turn in the term paper late is, at best, mathematically ill-advised. This syllabus includes deadlines for all assignments and test dates, and it is your responsibility to know when assignments are due and tests are scheduled. |  |
Grade Scale
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A 92-100 (95) A- 89-91 (90) B+ 86-88 (87) B 82-85 (84) B- 79-81 (80) C+ 76-78 (77) C 70-75 (73) D 60-69 (65) F 0-60 |
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Readings
The reading schedule for the class is in bold on the course schedule. Three are in assigned texts, but the remainder are accessible by clicking on the title in the syllabus. You are responsible for completing all readings prior to class. We will normally discuss readings in class on Thursdays. We will discuss the readings in class, and test material will be drawn from them, so you should purchase them or arrange to share with another class member.
The course has three assigned texts. Each will have test material taken directly from them, so you should purchase or share them. All three have been in print for a while and can be found online for much less than they will cost at the University bookstore. Click on any of the book titles below to check prices at online retailers.
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Course Outline and Schedule
NO CLASS JANUARY 12 SOCIETY FOR HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE
Week 1 (Jan. 10, 17, 19)
Introduction to course: What makes it modern?
Week 2 (Jan.24, 26)
What is material culture?
Why Collect Things?
Capitalism and minutia: the link between Ronald McDonald and inequality
TIME CAPSULE EXERCISE DUE FEBRUARY 2
Week 3 (Jan.31, Feb 2)
Ideology and Material Culture
Disciplining the Material World: Etiquette, Civility, and Surveillance
Week 4 (Feb. 7, 9)
TERM PAPER TOPIC DUE FEBRUARY 7
Puritans and Romantics: the Roots of Modern Consumer Society
The Culture of Abundance: Industrial Capitalism in Victorian America
COLLECTING EXERCISE DUE FEBRUARY 16
Week 5 (Feb. 14, 16)
Consumption in the Twentieth Century
Ali Baba's Lamp: Department Stores and Material Spectacle
Sell Them Their Dreams: Credit, Advertising, and Mail Order
Shopping with the Cleavers: Consumption in the Age of Television
Week 6 (Feb. 21, 23)
Subcultural Materialism: The Politics of Material Resistance
Week 7 (Feb.28, March 2)
Museums as material culture
Week 8 (March 7, 9)
Constructing the Material World: Space and Style
Week 9 (March 14, 16)
Popular History
Post Modern Memory?: Pastiche
and History
Its a Small History: the
Disney Past
The Things We Remember:
Historical Torture at the London Dungeon
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Last updated January 1, 2006
