The Reality of Artifacts


Book Description

Artifacts are hybrids, both natural and cultural. They are also an essential component in the process of human evolution. In recent years, a wide range of disciplines, including cognitive science, sociology, art history, and anthropology, have all grappled with the nature of artifacts, leading to the emergence of a renewed interdisciplinary focus on material culture. The Reality of Artifacts: An Archaeological Perspective develops an argument for the artifact as a status conferred by human engagement with material. On this basis, artifacts are considered first in terms of their relationship to concepts and cognitive functions, and then to the physical body and sense of self. The book builds on and incorporates the latest developments in archaeological research, particularly from the archaeology of human evolution, and integrates this wealth of new archaeological data with new research in fields such as cognitive science, haptics, and material culture studies. Making the latest research available for the general reader interested in material culture, while also providing archaeologists with new theoretical perspectives built on a synthesis of interdisciplinary research, this book is suitable for courses taught at both graduate and undergraduate students, and is broadly accessible.




The Reality of Artifacts


Book Description

It is all in the mind -- Artifacts and the body -- Making space for the invisible -- Wrapping the surface, rethinking art -- The autonomy of objects -- Epilogue: towards an ecology with objects




Object Stories


Book Description

Twenty-five archaeologists each tell an intimate story of their experience and entanglement with an evocative artifact.




Artifacts


Book Description

An archaeologist explores the material culture of Silicon Valley.




Creations of the Mind


Book Description

Creations of the Mind presents sixteen original essays by theorists from a wide variety of disciplines who have a shared interest in the nature of artifacts and their implications for the human mind. All the papers are written specially for this volume, and they cover a broad range of topics concerned with the metaphysics of artifacts, our concepts of artifacts and the categories that they represent, the emergence of an understanding of artifacts in infants' cognitive development, as well as the evolution of artifacts and the use of tools by non-human animals. This volume will be a fascinating resource for philosophers, cognitive scientists, and psychologists, and the starting point for future research in the study of artifacts and their role in human understanding, development, and behaviour. Contributors: John R. Searle, Richard E. Grandy, Crawford L. Elder, Amie L. Thomasson, Jerrold Levinson, Barbara C. Malt, Steven A. Sloman, Dan Sperber, Hilary Kornblith, Paul Bloom, Bradford Z. Mahon, Alfonso Caramazza, Jean M. Mandler, Deborah Kelemen, Susan Carey, Frank C. Keil, Marissa L. Greif, Rebekkah S. Kerner, James L. Gould, Marc D. Hauser, Laurie R. Santos, Steven Mithen




Archaeological Typology and Practical Reality


Book Description

A study of the various ways in which field archaeologists set about making and using classifications to meet a variety of practical needs. The authors discuss how humans form concepts. They then describe and analyse in detail a specific example of an archaeological classification, and go on to consider the theoretical generalizations that can be derived from the study of actual in-use classifications.




Artifacts and Organizations


Book Description

Artifacts in organizations are ubiquitous but often overlooked. The chapters in this book illustrate that artifacts are everywhere in organizational life. They prevail in how offices are decorated, language is used, business cards are designed, and office cartoons are displayed. In addition, artifacts can be seen in the name of an organization and its employees, products, buildings, processes, and contracts, and they represent people, organizations, and professions. Artifacts and Organizations suggests that artifacts are neither superficial nor pertinent only to organizational culture. They are relevant to a rich and diverse set of organizational processes within and across multiple levels of analysis. Artifacts are shown to be integral to identity, sense-giving and sense-making processes, interpretation and negotiation, legitimacy, and branding. The book seeks to communicate that artifacts are often much more than what is currently recognized in organizational research. The four sections of this edited volume address various aspects of what is known about and known through artifacts. Together, the full set of chapters challenge the field to move beyond a narrow conceptualization and understanding of artifacts in organizations. This book leads students to embrace the full complexity and richness of artifacts. In addition, the text seeks to inspire those who focus on artifacts as symbols to delve deeper into the complexities of artifacts-in-use, for individuals, organizations, and institutions.




All That She Carried


Book Description

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft a “deeply layered and insightful” (The Washington Post) testament to people who are left out of the archives. WINNER: Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Harriet Tubman Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize, Lawrence W. Levine Award, Darlene Clark Hine Award, Cundill History Prize, Joan Kelly Memorial Prize, Massachusetts Book Award ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Slate, Vulture, Publishers Weekly “A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis: the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag for her with a few items, and, soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the sack in spare, haunting language. Historian Tiya Miles carefully traces these women’s faint presence in archival records, and, where archives fall short, she turns to objects, art, and the environment to write a singular history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and love passed down against steep odds. It honors the creativity and resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today FINALIST: MAAH Stone Book Award, Kirkus Prize, Mark Lynton History Prize, Chatauqua Prize ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, NPR, Time, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Smithsonian Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. magazine, Book Riot, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist




Jean Baudrillard, Art and Artefact


Book Description

This bookoffers a major reappraisal of Jean Baudrillard's thoughts on the image, radical illusion and media culture. Here for the first time, through a number of highly accessible interviews and recent essays, Baudrillard introduces what he calls the stunning clarity' of the photographic, and fascinatingly outlines his present thoughts on urban reality, aesthetics, virtual reality and new media technologies, in the light of his practice as a photographer. The book is illustrated with eight colour plates of Baudrillard's photographs and includes a number of provocative and illuminating responses to his recent writings from noted Baudrillard scholars. It also includes a definitive bibliography of critical responses to Baudrillard's writings on media culture, art and photography.




Artifacts of Lanedon


Book Description

In a world called Lanedon, five Artifacts enabled the High Council to keep the evil Lord Maligor at bay for centuries. But Maligor is cunning, and he has used powerful sorcery to open a portal to a parallel world where he has hidden the sword Aurcrin—the greatest of the Artifacts—so it can never again be used against him. This other world is a place called Earth. Krem Connelly just graduated from a college preparatory school in the Chicago area. His life has been a lot like his name: odd and obscure. But unbeknownst to Krem he happens to be a bloodline descendant of a special family in a parallel world. While backpacking in France, he finds a sword that was never meant to be discovered. When he grabs it, it opens a portal to a place called Lanedon. Upon stepping through he begins a journey to pursue a destiny that he does not understand, that only he can fulfill, and that will determine the fate of Lanedon. He must find the other bloodline descendants and help them acquire their Artifacts if they are to defeat Maligor. He must also discover his true self and come to terms with the history he has lived on Earth, and the history he has inherited in Lanedon.




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