Making Meaning from Mugs

Presenter's Name(s)

Claire TylkeFollow

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

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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.