demography
Chapter 1
Introduction
It was the development of ability to communicate through speech and tool making capacity that the Homo sapien sapien species got separated from rest of the higher mammals as these two capacities have been fundamental for ‘culture’ which is the most diagnostic feature of human society. In this the use of tools made of wood, stone, and bone appears to have been preceded. Thus “culture” could be broadly classed as material culture and non-material culture. Material culture is central to an understanding of culture and social relations through artefacts which give assumptions of a particular community or society. Culture and society are seen as being created and reproduced by the ways in which people make, design, and interact with objects. The word material in material culture refers to a broad range of objects. Understandings of material culture has been central to anthropology since its inception; during the late 19th and early 20th century anthropologists primarily collected material culture (Kroeber, Boas: 1896-1905) that was displayed in museums in Europe and North America. Daniel Miller has called for “an independent discipline of material culture” (Miller 1987:112). According to Miller and Tilley (1996:5) “the study of material culture may be most broadly defined as the investigation of the relationship between people and things irrespective of time and space. The perspective adopted may be global or local, concerned with the past or present, or the mediation between the two.” Joseph (2001:121) views that “Henry Glassie view of culture in which material items were symbols and grammar, a text through which one could understand the meaning and intention of historic actions and not merely their historical and economic consequences”. The term ‘material culture emphasises how apparently inanimate things within the environment act
Introduction
It was the development of ability to communicate through speech and tool making capacity that the Homo sapien sapien species got separated from rest of the higher mammals as these two capacities have been fundamental for ‘culture’ which is the most diagnostic feature of human society. In this the use of tools made of wood, stone, and bone appears to have been preceded. Thus “culture” could be broadly classed as material culture and non-material culture. Material culture is central to an understanding of culture and social relations through artefacts which give assumptions of a particular community or society. Culture and society are seen as being created and reproduced by the ways in which people make, design, and interact with objects. The word material in material culture refers to a broad range of objects. Understandings of material culture has been central to anthropology since its inception; during the late 19th and early 20th century anthropologists primarily collected material culture (Kroeber, Boas: 1896-1905) that was displayed in museums in Europe and North America. Daniel Miller has called for “an independent discipline of material culture” (Miller 1987:112). According to Miller and Tilley (1996:5) “the study of material culture may be most broadly defined as the investigation of the relationship between people and things irrespective of time and space. The perspective adopted may be global or local, concerned with the past or present, or the mediation between the two.” Joseph (2001:121) views that “Henry Glassie view of culture in which material items were symbols and grammar, a text through which one could understand the meaning and intention of historic actions and not merely their historical and economic consequences”. The term ‘material culture emphasises how apparently inanimate things within the environment act
References: Dash (2004). Social and cultural anthropology, New Delhi: Atlantic Publication Miller, D. and Tilley, C. 1996. Editorial. Journal of Material Culture Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 5–14. Material Culture by Henry Glassie Review by: J. W. Joseph Historical Archaeology, Vol. 35, No. 2 (2001), pp. 121-122 Thoms, N. 1989’ “Material culture and colonial power; Ethnographical collecting and the established of colonial rule in Fiji Man”, News series, 24(1); 41-56 Buchi, victor.2004. “Material culture; Critical Concept in the Social Sciences. New York Routledge publication. Schiffer, Mechael Brain and Andhera Miller. 1999. “The material life of human beings; artefacts, behaviour communication”. New York; Routledge publication Thurston, (1909). The Castes and Tribes of Southern India, I (A and B) Madras: Government Press.