Making Meaning from Mugs
Conference Year
January 2019
Abstract
To what extend cultural conclusions can be drawn from an archaeological record is currently a topic of discussion within the archaeology discipline. As part of this conversation there is an emphasis of the usage of ethnoarchaeology in order to apply cultural understandings to what can be found through excavation. In this project I will examine people’s relationships with modern material culture using both ethnographic and archaeological methods. By exploring individual’s personal relationship with modern ceramic objects - in this case mugs - and then drawing connections to the physical evidence of these relationship - such as placement within the home or use ware - I will be able to see the overlap of these methodologies and determine how human-object relationships could be seen in an archaeological record.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Scott Van Keuren
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Second Student College
College of Arts and Sciences
Program/Major
Anthropology
Second Program/Major
Chinese
Primary Research Category
Arts & Humanities
Making Meaning from Mugs
To what extend cultural conclusions can be drawn from an archaeological record is currently a topic of discussion within the archaeology discipline. As part of this conversation there is an emphasis of the usage of ethnoarchaeology in order to apply cultural understandings to what can be found through excavation. In this project I will examine people’s relationships with modern material culture using both ethnographic and archaeological methods. By exploring individual’s personal relationship with modern ceramic objects - in this case mugs - and then drawing connections to the physical evidence of these relationship - such as placement within the home or use ware - I will be able to see the overlap of these methodologies and determine how human-object relationships could be seen in an archaeological record.