Object-driven approaches

At the same time, Herman has identified a second strand to material culture studies, one which he describes as ‘object-driven’. Here, the focus shifts toward an emphasis on understanding how objects relate to the peoples and cultures that make and use them. In particular, ideas about contextualisation and function become all important. As we have already noted, what objects mean may change through time and space. As products of a particular time and place, objects can tell us a great deal about the societies that gave birth to them. That is, they often help to reflect, or speak to us, of the values and beliefs of those who created them. At the same time, it is also important to remember that objects are not simply ‘passive’ in this way, but that they can also take on a more ‘active’ role, helping to create meaning rather than simply reflect it. In other words, they often emit a kind of power and authority which transcends their material status as simple objects made of wood or stone. It may not have escaped your notice that one of the first things that people do in a revolutionary situation is to attack, deface and destroy material objects most closely associated with an overthrown regime or dictator. The destruction of the Berlin Wall is an obvious example. More recently, the iconic images of the assault on the statue of Saddam Hussein (in which, incidentally, the demonstrators used another object, a shoe, to demonstrate their hatred for the dictator) in 2003 provide telling evidence of the importance attached to objects in such situations. Sometimes, the violence to objects is perpetrated by those in power. In 2001, for example, the Taliban in Afghanistan made great capital from the destruction of one of the country’s oldest and most treasured archaeological remains, the Bamiyan Buddhas. Here, religious and political motivations mixed to create an act of desecration that was widely vilified across the world. However, such acts of destruction or iconoclasm are not new. During the course of the Protestant Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe, many of the reformers went to great efforts to erase the material remains (crosses, statues, etc.) of what they saw as a false religious faith.