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This course focuses on how consumers negotiate desire, difference and power in the most seemingly commonplace material consumption: We will examine the concrete politics invested in things ranging from Barbies to subcultural fashion to household garbage. The course revolves around how a broadly defined archaeology of the modern material world can contextualize everyday goods as symbolically multivalent, politically contested vehicles for inchoate desires and contested social position. Rather than see commodities as flat reflections of pre-existing identities or dominant economic organizations, the course examines how such objects provide insights into who we wish to be and who we are, probing how we use goods and their consumption to negotiate, accept, and resist how we are positioned within broader collectives. We will trace the historical development of the relationship between goods and identity from the eighteenth century and identify the systems of inequality that have been reproduced (as well as subverted) through material consumption. The class champions a critical, self-reflective perspective on cultural and subcultural difference, and we will stress how archaeology's systematic analytical techniques provide a mechanism to probe the technological, social, and ideological meaning in the apparently meaningless minutia that surrounds us everyday.
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Course
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There is a separate web page with
directions for each exercise and another page with the term paper
guidelines. Those pages include the details of each assignment,
so please review those pages closely when completing the assignments. This syllabus includes deadlines for all assignments and test
dates, and it is your responsibility to know when assignments are due and tests
are scheduled. If any errors are made on this syllabus, they will be corrected
and those changes will be placed on
Oncourse
announcements. You will complete three exercises analyzing contemporary material culture. These will be worth 55% of the course grade (i.e., one worth 15%, and the second two worth 20% each). The major project for the semester will be a term paper worth 30% of the course grade. Each student will lead the class discussion on one course reading worth 5% of the course grade. Attendance will be worth 10% of the course grade. |
In the first exercise you will assemble a time capsule of contemporary material goods (15% final grade). Your capsule will contain at least 20 items, with essentially no restrictions on what you can place within them or exactly what you want your capsule to actually communicate to subsequent generations. You'll be expected to clearly specify why you included each item and what you want your time capsule to convey or symbolize.
The second exercise will be an "archaeological" analysis of a genuine contemporary garbage deposit. You will make a detailed record of your own garbage for a selected period, these records will be distributed anonymously to other students in the class, and you will then analyze a classmates' refuse sample (20% final grade).
The third exercise (20%) will be an analysis of a contemporary collection. Collecting creates the illusion of adequate representation of the world, but that representation can come in the form of matchbook covers, snowglobes, banana magnets, and any number of serialized assemblages. You will prepare a paper that analyzes a single collection, outlines how it conforms to or departs from our working definition of a "good" collection (e.g., public, pedagogical, etc.), and examines the ways in which it is a reflection of the world or an indication of how the collector wishes the world could be.
At some point in the semester, each student will present a selection of the readings assigned in the same night (5% of your final grade). The readings page will include all readings and indicates the class members who will present those readings. You must prepare a written review of the reading for me and direct the class' discussion of the reading: your review should minimally be about one page, though you may do it in a loose outline form. Anybody who does not complete the review will not receive credit for the reading. You can volunteer to present any reading of your choosing on a first-come, first-serve basis; any students who do not sign up by the second class will be assigned a reading. Anybody who does not attend on the night of their reading will receive no credit without a substantial excuse. During the semester you will produce a term paper that interprets some object, material space, or class of modern material objects using the concepts and examples examined in class (30%). You will be required to provide a proposal for your term paper subject by February 22. Students who do not turn in a paper proposal by February 22 will automatically lose a letter grade from their paper's final grade. I reserve the right to reject any unapproved topic: please do not skip the proposal. |
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Participation in class discussion and attendance at lecture are key to comprehension, especially since we cover so much material in each weekly class meeting. Students who miss one or no class meetings will receive 10% of the course grade. After that absence the grade will fall by two points for each subsequent absence. For instance, if you missed one class you still receive the full 10 points; if you missed two classes you receive 8 points; if you miss three you receive 6 points; if you miss four you receive 4 points; if you miss five you receive 2 points; and you receive no points for six or more absences. Excused absences do not count toward your attendance grade if they are documented illnesses, holidays recognized by some reasonably well-recognized faith, or have been cleared with me before or shortly after the missed class. Please email me about all absences, and I will respond in an email to confirm those that have been excused. Do not discuss early semester absences at the end of April. If you do not attend on the day your discussion presentation is scheduled, you will not receive any points toward the presentation grade; since this is 5% of your final grade, it is an ill-advised move to skip the discussion. |
If you cannot complete an assignment on time for any reason, you must contact me. I will only extend a deadline in cases where a student demonstrates sufficient reason to be granted an extension. I can always be contacted after class, you can schedule an appointment, and I check my email virtually everyday. Do NOT wait until after a deadline to talk to me, and do NOT postpone talking to me if you are having any difficulty completing an assignment for any reason. Late assignments will be penalized significantly if you do not negotiate an extension with me beforehand. Students who do not turn in the term paper on time will receive no credit for the assignment. To miss any of the exercises or turn in the term paper late is, at best, mathematically ill-advised.
All course Powerpoint lectures and some PDF readings will be placed on Oncourse under the Resources tab. Class grades will be recorded on the Oncourse gradebook.
All work in the course is conducted in accordance with the University’s academic misconduct policy. Cheating includes dishonesty of any kind with respect to exams or assignments. Plagiarism is the offering of someone else’s work as your own: this includes taking material from books, web pages, or other students, turning in the same or substantially similar work as other students, or failing to properly cite other research. Please consult the University Bulletin’s academic misconduct policy if you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty.
All work in this course is intended to fulfill the University's Principles of Undergraduate Learning. The class focuses on critical, self-reflective thinking, integrates knowledge from a variety of disciplinary and sociocultural perspectives, examines social and cultural complexity, and probes the impact of knowledge on our everyday decision-making. Do let me know if the course does not satisfy any of the missions included in the Principles.
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A 92-100 (95) A- 89-91 (90) B+ 86-88 (87) B 82-85 (84) B- 79-81 (80) C+ 76-78 (77) C 70-75 (73) D 60-69 (65) F 0-60 |
| The reading schedule for the class is in
bold on the course schedule. Some of the readings come from three assigned texts, but the
remainder are accessible by clicking on the title in the syllabus.
Linked readings require that you log into the IUPUI University Library
page with an IUPUI Network ID (i.e., a username and password) when accessing
University Library's electronic resources from off-campus. Try the
E-Resource
Troubleshooting page if you're having problems gaining access to any
readings. You are responsible for completing all readings prior to class. We will discuss the readings in class, and you will be expected to integrate concepts and examples from the readings into your term paper, so you should purchase them or arrange to share with another class member. The course has three assigned texts. Hebdige's book can be read as an e-book on Ebrary and netLibrary. Both services are free to IUPUI students and include full-text access. Hebdige and Rathje's books have been in print for a while and can be found online for much less than they will cost at the University bookstore, and you may well find Belasco's book online, too. Click on any of the book titles below to compare prices at online retailers. |
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NO CLASS JANUARY 11 SOCIETY FOR HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE
January 18
Introduction to course: Defining anthropology, archaeology, and material culture
What is culture? Mass culture?
Popular culture?
What makes it modern?
January 25
What is material culture? Why Collect Things?
REFUSE ANALYSIS EXERCISE COLLECTION DUE FEBRUARY 1
February 1
Context and Capitalism: The link between Ronald McDonald and inequality
Additional Readings
TIME CAPSULE EXERCISE DUE FEBRUARY 8
February 8
Ideology and Material Culture
Additional readings
February 15
Puritans and Romantics: the Roots of Modern Consumer Society
TERM PAPER TOPIC DUE FEBRUARY 22
February 22
Sell Them Their Dreams: Advertising and Consumer Desire
March 1
Displaying and Defining material culture
REFUSE EXERCISE ANALYSIS DUE MARCH 8
March 8
Pieces of Memory: Souvenirs
SPRING BREAK MARCH 12-18
March 22
Post Modern Identity: Pastiche and Material Consumption
COLLECTING EXERCISE DUE MARCH 29
March 29
Constructing Gender in the Material World: Consuming Gender
Additional readings
April 5
Consuming Gender, Part II
April 12
Constructing the Material World: Space and Surveillance
April 19
The Socio-Moral Implications of Mass Consumer Culture
April 26
Implications of Modern Material Culture Research
Nationalism: Is the planet
already a consumer society?
Interventions: How can
understanding the material world direct social change?
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Last updated January 22, 2007
