Cengage Learning

Material Culture in America: Understanding Everyday Life, 1st Edition

  • Published By:
  • ISBN-10: 1576076482
  • ISBN-13: 9781576076484
  • DDC: 306.097303
  • Grade Level Range: 9th Grade - College Senior
  • 569 Pages | eBook
  • Original Copyright 2007 | Published/Released September 2010
  • This publication's content originally published in print form: 2007

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About

Overview

You can tell a lot about people by looking at their stuff -- the things they make, possess, think, and value. That is the idea that drives the field of material culture, in which scholars explore the meaning of objects of a given society. And nowhere are those meanings more revealing than in the material culture of the United States. Reaching back 400 years, Material Life in America: An Encyclopedia is the first reference showing what the study of material culture reveals about American society -- revelations not accessible through traditional sources and methods.

In nearly 200 entries, the encyclopedia traces the history of artifacts, concepts and ideas, industries, peoples and cultures, cultural productions, historical forces, periods and styles, religious and secular rituals and traditions, and much more. Everyone from researchers and curators to students and general readers will find example after example of how the objects and environments created or altered by humans reveal as much about American life as diaries, documents, and texts.

Table of Contents

Front Cover.
Half Title Page.
Title Page.
Copyright Page.
Contents.
List of Contributors.
Introduction.
1: Adolescence.
2: Adulthood.
3: Advertisements and Advertising.
4: Aesthetic Movement.
5: African America.
6: African American Foodways.
7: Agricultural Architecture.
8: Agricultural Fairs and Expositions.
9: Agricultural Work and Labor.
10: Air and Space Transportation.
11: Alternative Foodways.
12: Animals.
13: Anthropology and Archaeology.
14: Antiques.
15: Apartments, Tenements, and Flats.
16: Architectural History and American Architecture.
17: Art Deco.
18: Art History and American Art.
19: Art Nouveau.
20: Arts and Crafts Movement.
21: Attics.
22: Auctions.
23: Automobile Camping (Auto-Camping).
24: Automobiles and Automobility.
25: Base Metalwork and Metalware.
26: Bathrooms.
27: Bedrooms.
28: Boardinghouses.
29: Bodily Cleanliness and Hygiene.
30: Body Modification.
31: Books.
32: Burial Grounds, Cemeteries, and Grave Markers.
33: Cellars and Basements.
34: Ceramics.
35: Childhood.
36: Children's Dress.
37: Children's Material Culture.
38: Children's Toys.
39: Child's Body.
40: Chippendale Style.
41: Cities and Towns.
42: City Parks.
43: Civic Architecture.
44: Classical Revival (Neoclassicism).
45: Collecting and Collections.
46: Colonial Revival.
47: Commercial Architecture.
48: Commercial Food Venues.
49: Commercials.
50: Commodity.
51: Community.
52: Company Towns.
53: Computers and Information Technology.
54: Consumerism and Consumption.
55: Cosmetics, Toiletries, Perfumes, and Colognes.
56: Cultural Geography.
57: Cultural History.
58: Cultural Studies.
59: Decorative Arts.
60: Department Stores.
61: Design History and American Design.
62: Dining Rooms.
63: Disability and Disability Studies.
64: Domestic Architecture.
65: Dower Right.
66: Dress, Accessories, and Fashion.
67: Eastlake Style.
68: Education and Schooling.
69: Empire Style.
70: Ephemera.
71: Ethnicity.
72: Etiquette and Manners.
73: Factory and Industrial Work and Labor.
74: Fakes.
75: Fanzines.
76: Federal Style.
77: Flea Markets.
78: Floor Coverings.
79: Folklore and Folklife.
80: Food and Foodways.
81: Funerals.
82: Funerary (Sepulchral) Monuments.
83: Furniture.
84: Games.
85: Gay Consumerism.
86: Gender.
87: General (Country) Stores.
88: Georgian Style.
89: Gifts and Gift Giving.
90: Glass.
91: Gothic Revival.
92: Graphic Design.
93: Grocery Stores.
94: Halls.
95: Handicraft and Artisanship.
96: Heirlooms.
97: Highways and National Highway System.
98: Historic Preservation.
99: Holidays and Commemorations.
100: Homeless Residences.
101: House, Home, and Domesticity.
102: Houses of Worship (Ecclesiastical Architecture).
103: Human Aging and the Aged.
104: Human Body.
105: Illicit Pleasures and Venues.
106: Industrial Design.
107: Interior Design.
108: International Style.
109: Junk, Scrap, and Salvage.
110: Kitchens and Pantries.
111: Land and Landscape.
112: Land Transportation.
113: Leisure, Recreation, and Amusements.
114: Light, Lighting Devices, and Lighting Systems.
115: Literary Studies and American Literature.
116: Living Rooms.
117: Mail Order Catalogues.
118: Mannerism.
119: Maritime Material Culture.
120: Materials Conservation.
121: Medical Instruments.
122: Memory and Memorabilia.
123: Military Dress.
124: Mill Towns.
125: Mobile Homes and Trailer Parks.
126: Modernism (Art Moderne).
127: Money, Currency, and Value.
128: Mourning.
129: Mourning and Ethnicity.
130: Museums and Museum Practice.
131: Music and Musical Instruments.
132: Music Ephemera.
133: Native America.
134: Nostalgia.
135: Office Work and Labor.
136: Parlors.
137: Patents, Trademarks, and Brands.
138: Penitentiaries and Prisons.
139: Photography.
140: Plainness (Quaker).
141: Planned Communities.
142: Political Ephemera.
143: Popular Culture.
144: Postmodernism.
145: Poverty.
146: Print Culture.
147: Printmaking and American Prints.
148: Probate Records, Probate Inventories, and Wills.
149: Public and Commercial Leisure, Recreation, and Amusement Venues.
150: Public Markets.
151: Public Monuments and Popular Commemoration.
152: Queen Anne Style.
153: Race.
154: Recreation Rooms.
155: Religion, Spirituality and Belief.
156: Religious Dress.
157: Renaissance Revival.
158: Rite, Ritual, and Ceremony.
159: Rococo Revival.
160: Scrapbooks.
161: Secondhand Goods and Shopping.
162: Servants’ Spaces.
163: Service Industry Work and Labor.
164: Service Stations.
165: Sex and Sexuality.
166: Shopping Centers and Shopping Malls.
167: Silverwork and Silverware.
168: Slavery.
169: Social Class and Social Status.
170: Social History.
171: Souvenirs.
172: Space and Place.
173: Sports.
174: Style.
175: Suburbs and Suburbia.
176: Supermarkets.
177: Technology.
178: Textiles.
179: Time, Timekeeping, and Timepieces.
180: Tools, Implements, and Instruments.
181: Tourism and Travel.
182: Trade Cards.
183: Trade Catalogues.
184: Tradition.
185: Utopian Communities.
186: Vernacular.
187: Visual Culture Studies.
188: Wallpaper.
189: Water Transportation.
190: William and Mary Style.
191: Work and Labor.
192: World's Fairs and Expositions.
193: Yard Sales.