Sensible Objects

Colonialism, Museums and Material Culture

Elizabeth Edwards, Chris Gosden, Ruth Phillips

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000190069
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Anthropologists of the senses have long argued that cultures differ in their sensory registers. This groundbreaking volume applies this idea to material culture and the social practices that endow objects with meanings in both colonial and postcolonial relationships. It challenges the privileged position of the sense of vision in the analysis of material culture. Contributors argue that vision can only be understood in relation to the other senses. In this they present another challenge to the assumed western five-sense model, and show how our understanding of material culture in both historical and contemporary contexts might be reconfigured if we consider the role of smell, taste, touch and sound, as well as sight, in making meanings about objects.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part 1 The Senses
• Part 2 Colonialism
• Part 3 Museums
• Index