Materiality

Sandwiched between the introduction by Daniel Miller to this lively volume and a dissident final contribution by Chris Pinney are nine other essays, many of which address more than one of the three central themes to which the volume is intended to contribute: (1) the desire frequently found in human...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2006, Vol.12 (4), p.968-969
Main Author: Merlan, Francesca
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Christianity
Essays
Material culture
Materiality
Metaphysics
Object
Religion
Social life
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Summary:Sandwiched between the introduction by Daniel Miller to this lively volume and a dissident final contribution by Chris Pinney are nine other essays, many of which address more than one of the three central themes to which the volume is intended to contribute: (1) the desire frequently found in human societies to transcend and repudiate materiality; (2) the plural nature of materiality and immateriality and relations between them; and (3) rejection of what is referred to as the 'tyranny of the subject', the privileging of social relations and the human subject as the 'real' in relation to which things have 'meaning'. Webb Keane's and Susanne Kuchler's essays may be paired for at least two reasons: both explore deficiencies in theories of signification, and Keane treats clothes, Kuchler 'intelligent' new fabrics, in making their arguments about the integral role of forms of materiality to the constitution of kinds of human subjects.
ISSN:1359-0987
1467-9655
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9655.2006.00372_11.x