Do you ever wonder what your possessions say about you? Our possessions and other things we use lie at the hearts of our everyday lives. We inadvertently generate material culture during our daily activities and interactions. In turn, material culture helps us structure negotiations with one another in our cultured worlds. Archaeology is unique among anthropological endeavors in its reliance on material culture to reconstruct and understand past human behavior. We will learn methodological and theoretical approaches from archaeology and ethnography for understanding material culture. Lecture topics will be explored in hands-on labs. Studying the world of material can help us understand the nature of objects and how humans have interacted with them across time and space. In addition, material culture indicates how humans mobilize objects in their cross-cultural interactions.

Units: 1

Max Enrollment: 25

Prerequisites: None

Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis

Typical Periods Offered: Every other year

Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Not Offered

Notes: Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement.