INQ-260AN | Things in Contact

Full Title: Things in Contact

Topic Description:

This course offers students an introduction to the study of material culture—“things.” In their social life, “things” do more than communicate meaning, they also create meaning by shaping the lived experiences of the people who make, use, and exchange them. Using the material of colonies, we will explore the ways in which natives and newcomers alike crafted a social persona using the “things” circulating between and among them as gifts and commodities. To fully understand how things made people in a complex and changing, colonial economy, students will grapple with several related questions—How do objects acquire value?; How do things-in-motion make reputations and memories?; How do they respond to historical transformations?; and lastly, How do they develop their own form agency?

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: February 2011