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Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
Building A Collection Of Contemporary Urban Material Culture, Robert Rotenberg, Alaka Wali
Building A Collection Of Contemporary Urban Material Culture, Robert Rotenberg, Alaka Wali
Robert Rotenberg
No abstract provided.
Material Agency In The Urban Material Culture Initiative, Robert Rotenberg
Material Agency In The Urban Material Culture Initiative, Robert Rotenberg
Robert Rotenberg
This contribution to the discussion of collecting contemporary objects reviews the implications of taking seriously how and what objects communicate, especially how we can identify the ways messages are coded in the forms of familiar objects. Of special interest are the conceptual tools that are available to differentiate these messages when objects are arranged in assemblages, including emergent implicit messages, the messages implicit in sets of objects. I advocate an approach to collecting in museums based on the tactics people use to create these assemblages at home. What theorizing about material agency offers to our collection program is a focus …
The Seven Spices: Pumpkins, Puritans, And Pathogens In Colonial New England, Michael Sharbaugh
The Seven Spices: Pumpkins, Puritans, And Pathogens In Colonial New England, Michael Sharbaugh
Michael D Sharbaugh
Water sources in the United States' New England region are laden with arsenic. Particularly during North America's colonial period--prior to modern filtration processes--arsenic would make it into the colonists' drinking water. In this article, which evokes the biocultural evolution paradigm, it is argued that colonists offset health risks from the contaminant (arsenic poisoning) by ingesting copious amounts of seven spices--cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, vanilla, and ginger. The inclusion of these spices in fall and winter recipes that hail from New England would therefore explain why many Americans associate them not only with the region, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas, …
Designing, Producing And Enacting Nationalisms: Contemporary Amerindian Fashion In Canada, Cory Willmott
Designing, Producing And Enacting Nationalisms: Contemporary Amerindian Fashion In Canada, Cory Willmott
Cory A. Willmott
Today, generations after the adoption of European styles, Amerindian peoples’ everyday clothing is almost indistinguishable from that of other residents of North America. Until recently their culturally distinct clothing has been mainly reserved for ceremonial occasions such as powwows and religious rituals. This bifurcation of clothing styles and contexts parallels the dichotomy between ‘traditional’ and ‘assimilated’ Native identity that has been imposed by the dominant society. The dichotomy is a double bind: adopting ‘traditional’ identities, Native peoples are cast into a static ahistorical frame, while appearing ‘assimilated’ erases cultural distinctiveness. In both cases, Native peoples cannot effectively stake claims to …