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Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum
Bibliography: p. 207-227.
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Archaeology
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613261638139904 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Davison, Patricia |
| author2 | Hall, Martin |
| author_browse | Davison, Patricia Hall, Martin |
| author_facet | Hall, Martin Davison, Patricia |
| author_sort | Davison, Patricia |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Bibliography: p. 207-227. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18276 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:19.547Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | Department of Archaeology |
| publisherStr | Department of Archaeology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/18276 Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum Davison, Patricia Hall, Martin Archaeology Material culture - South Africa Ethnoarchaeology Bibliography: p. 207-227. The broad theoretical concern of the thesis is to elucidate the relationship between material culture and social relations, and to counter the analytical separation of cultural form and social practice, which is a pervasive problem in archaeology and material culture studies in general. This problem is addressed with reference to museum practice, focusing in particular on the social role of artefacts in two contextual domains - that of everyday life, as interpreted in ethnographic fieldwork, and that of a museum, which is in itself a complex cultural artefact. These two contexts are linked by the concept of recontextualization, which I suggest is a pivotal process in both museum practice and archaeology. The theory of 'structuration', as formulated by Anthony Giddens, is drawn on to overcome the problematic separation of cultural objects from social subjects. This leads to the conceptualization of meaning in material culture as being socially constituted and context-related, and the relationship of material culture to social relations as being one of mediation rather than objective reflection. Emphasis is thereby given to material culture as a resource that is actively implicated in the construction of social relations and identity. This theoretical approach is applied in two field studies and two museum studies. The former, undertaken in Transkei and the Transvaal Lowveld, investigate material culture in the social matrix of everyday use; the latter, undertaken with reference to the Ethnography section of the South African Museum, illustrate the process of recontextualization, which I regard as operating at both physical and cognitive levels. It is argued that processes of recontextualization, inherent in museum practice, inevitably change both context and the object-subject relationship, and therefore alter the range of meanings that objects evoke once located in a museum. Despite the apparent authenticity of exhibited artefacts, I argue that museum representations are composite artefacts of museum practice, rather than objective reflections of reality. I suggest that reflexive awareness of professional practice as social practice should be built into both archaeological texts and museum representations, through which knowledge of the social past is conveyed to the general public. This is consistent with the argument throughout the dissertation for an integration of object and subject, and a recognition of human agency, past and present. In conclusion, I argue for a more sensitive, reflexive approach to museum practice that would encourage an awareness of social context, and invite a more active participation by viewers in the generation of meaning. The dissertation is a contribution to this end. 2016-03-28T14:32:04Z 2016-03-28T14:32:04Z 1991 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18276 eng application/pdf Department of Archaeology Faculty of Science University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Archaeology Material culture - South Africa Ethnoarchaeology Davison, Patricia Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| title_full | Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| title_fullStr | Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| title_full_unstemmed | Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| title_short | Material culture, context and meaning : a critical investigation of museum practice, with particular reference to the South African Museum |
| title_sort | material culture context and meaning a critical investigation of museum practice with particular reference to the south african museum |
| topic | Archaeology Material culture - South Africa Ethnoarchaeology |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18276 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davisonpatricia materialculturecontextandmeaningacriticalinvestigationofmuseumpracticewithparticularreferencetothesouthafricanmuseum |