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Material Culture

Example image Material & Visual Anthropology, braiding
Foto: Schabnam Kaviany

Description

This research field analyzes material and pictorial evidence from “foreign” cultures and expands the access to an otherwise primarily text-based subject. A constant of Cultural and Social Anthropology (formerly Ethnology) in Marburg has been its role in handling ethnographic objects ever since the beginnings of the subject at the University of Marburg. It is one of the few Anthropology programs in Germany that incorporates objects from the Ethnographic Collection in its curriculum. Having been  neglected for a long time, material culture has gained in importance on a theoretical level over the past two decades due to a renewed interest in the discipline in object-based research and related public debates regarding museums.

On the one hand, the focus is on theories regarding the objects themselves, which are explored for their cultural and social meaning. Object-based biographies, the social dimension of material culture, mythical references, technical developments, globalization and consumption, as well as art are only some of the key issues that reflect the range of different approaches. Inquiries into materiality and personality overcome, moreover, the classification by subject and object and highlight different attribution modalities. Objects as bearers of memories in turn function as markers for spatial and temporal reference points.

On the other hand, queries about museum collections and ethnological exhibitions form another focus area. Museum collections have been sharply criticized as part of the post-colonialism debate, which provided a reason for reevaluating ethical issues. In addition, there is a need for “traditional” provenance research in museum collections, as well as differentiated analyses of exhibitions. Current projects integrate source communities that facilitate intercultural exchange and provide a multplicity of voices to the collection objects. Aspects that must also be considered are the different levels of conveying information, the interaction of texts and objects, the use of new media, the translation of specific cultural forms of expression into the “Here” and “Now,” etc. In addition, the Ethnographic Collection organizes its own exhibitions.

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Research Projects