Material turn: Anthropology, material and meaning

Abstract

The literature produces in Anthropology related to indigenous artifacts significantly focused to understand the means of cultural complexity however, aspects of materiality of the artifacts merely explored. However, since 1960 the attributes of material culture came into the discussion based on the Marxist ideology and in contemporary discussion material culture is being discussed in relation to living through objects based on the argument that objects can signify the cultural meanings of social institutions, and structures by marking the aesthetics values of a person or society. Nevertheless, in these lines the concept of power and identity in society is also being discussed and it is tried to understand materials in a backdrop of human-environment relations. To unfold the dynamics revolving around the material culture and its meaning, systematic literature was caried out and developed themes to build argument that there is need of a social theory of material and life as it is entangled with other life processes to fill the gaps existing while studying the material aspects of the objects and its relationship with social life.

 Keywords: Material Anthropology, Objects, Meaning, Culture, Environment