Ian Woodward - Domestic Objects

Journal http://mcu.sagepub.
com/ of Material Culture
Domestic Objects and the Taste Epiphany : A Resource for Consumption Methodology
Ian Woodward Journal of Material Culture 2001 6: 115 DOI: 10.1177/135918350100600201 The online version of this article can be found at: http://mcu.sagepub.com/content/6/2/115
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
Additional services and information for Journal of Material Culture can be found at: Email Alerts: http://mcu.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://mcu.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: http://mcu.sagepub.com/content/6/2/115.refs.html
>> Version of Record - Jul 1, 2001 What is This?
Downloaded from mcu.sagepub.com at UCL Library Services on January 9, 2012
Articles
DOMESTIC OBJECTS AND THE TA S T E E P I P H A N Y

A Resource for Consumption Methodology
I A N WO O D WA R D
School of Social Science, The University of Queensland Abstract The presentation of an aesthetic identity involves the accomplishment of a coherent, plausible narrative which links ones choices to desired characteristics of the self. As symbolic evidence of a persons taste, material culture is a vital component of a successful narrative. Via case studies of pivotal household objects, this paper uses face-to-face interview data as a way of investigating processes of aesthetic choice. Household objects are interpreted as material elements imbricated in the presentation of a socially plausible and internally consistent aesthetic self. Narrative analysis, and the concept of the epiphany-object, are proposed as useful ways of accounting for tastes in domestic material culture. Methodological questions of truthtelling and authenticity in the face-to-face context are considered, and the sociological problem of taste is scrutinized in light of ideas about social accountability and textual identity. Key Words N Consumption N domestic objects N epiphany N narrative N taste
INTRODUCTION
Attention to objects as rudimentary elements of consumer culture has acquired renewed status in socio-cultural accounts of consumption processes in late-modern societies. While sociologists and social anthropologists have historically had an enduring concern for the material constituents of culture (Goffman, 1951; Mauss, 1954; Simmel, 1957[1904];
Journal of Material Culture Copyright 2001 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi) Vol. 6(2): 115136 [1359-1835(200107)6:2; 115136;017686]
115
J o u r n a l o f M AT E R I A L C U LT U R E 6 ( 2 )
Veblen, 1899), the recent interest in objects has developed in the context of prominent socio-cultural accounts of modern consumerism, and in turn, the emphasis these have given to the material basis of consumption processes (Appadurai, 1986; Douglas and Isherwood, 1979; Miller, 1987; Riggins, 1994). This paper has its origin in this current wave of theoretical research into objects, but looks to fuse issues of methodology with the established theoretical perspectives in studies of tastes and material culture. It addresses methodological issues related to the process of data collection and interpretation, paying particular attention to the reexive negotiation of narrative in the face-to-face interview. This is a basic issue for studies of consumption, for despite the fact that the framework and assumptions of the material culture approach are well laid out in the aforementioned literature, important questions related to methodology have not been thoroughly explicated. This paper argues that the methodological perspectives of narrative analysis (Denzin, 1989a, 1997; Riessman, 1993) and social accountability theory (Shotter, 1984), and Denzins idea of epiphany (Denzin, 1989a, 1989b) are useful resources for understanding how taste and aesthetic choice are accomplished phenomena; created and managed through talk about pivotal, or epiphanic objects. This paper applies the theoretical motif of the object in order to investigate the narratives used to accomplish decisions of taste and aesthetic choice in homes. The material culture framework has been chosen for two reasons. In the rst instance, the domestic objects considered in this paper were focal points within interviews conducted with a sample of householders. Because of this, they can be seen as epiphanic or pivotal objects. Denzin has argued for the value of studying epiphanies as a component of biographical ethnography to describe problematic experiences, or turning-point moments, which in turn act as narrative resources for people to account for crises or changes in their lives (Denzin, 1989a: 6971, 1989b: 1519). Because they are framed as a problematic or crisis experience, epiphanies are held to be an effective way for researchers to capture signicant events in the lives of respondents. They are told as turning points in peoples lives, and are thus convenient resources for the researcher to construct meaningful accounts of identity and action. The objects interviewees talk about in this project can be seen as minor epiphanic objects. While choosing, purchasing and displaying the domestic objects considered in this paper do not represent crises or turmoil in the way Denzin originally applies the term epiphany typically, events such as breaking free from addictions, poor relationships, or more generally taking charge of ones life they are pivotal for the production of what is seen as a culturally warrantable (Denzin, 1989a: 77) taste narrative. A narrative is culturally warrantable when it can be told and heard as true or convincing by participants. It
116
Woodward: D O M E S T I C O B J E C T S A N D T H E TA S T E E P I P H A N Y
thus involves mastery of various discursive strategies. In all but one case reported in this paper, the objects were introduced as a topic for discussion by the interviewee. In the remaining case, the object was raised as a topic of interest by the interviewer because of its spatial prominence. Interview data about domestic objects are used as a device to ground investigation of taste and aesthetic decisions. Talking about taste and aesthetic choice with people in their homes offers opportunities for exploration of cultural, emotional, and aesthetic meanings that can be manifested in domestic objects. This methodology stands in contrast to studies of objective tastes, best represented by Bourdieus Distinction, which take mapping the social distribution of aesthetic and cultural preferences as the principal aim of sociological studies of taste. The study of objectied tastes preferences in music, art and literature amongst other forms of culture is well established in sociological studies of taste, in contrast to interpretive studies of taste narrative, which is the primary interest of this paper. The recent focus on the material object in consumption studies can be situated more broadly in the consumption studies literature. Investigation of consumption processes at the level of the object notably the epiphany object has the advantage of directing attention to the meaning and consequence of the thing being consumed, rather than a preoccupation with theoretical, ideological questions concerning the viability and authenticity of consumer practices. This re-orientation entails a signicant shift. The approach to theorizing consumption processes that was foundational in the sociology of consumption has arisen through theoretical frameworks generated by the core motifs of conventional sociological practice: constraint and opportunity, or more generally, activity and passivity. Broadly, questions of consumer consciousness, the political nature of consumerism and the relative power of the consumer vis--vis the structural forces of capitalism have been the primary concern for this approach. The principal feature is the positioning of consumption within a social context; informed by an understanding of issues such as media, marketing and social class. The organizing themes which frame consumer practice are centred on notions of political and economic power, choice and constraint. At an abstract level, they are grounded broadly in sociological questions of agency and structure. This reliance on dichotomous theoretical metaphors is what led Daniel Miller (1995) to summarize this type of sociology of consumption as encouraging the reductionist myth that consumerism was either good or bad, rather than a complex, discursive process. The lineage of these approaches can be traced from Marx, and through 20th-century varieties of critical thought such as Lukcs, Marcuse, and Horkheimer and Adorno. In contrast, the object turn in studies of consumer culture transfers
117
attention to the intrinsic materiality of many consumption processes. Particularly, it has suggested a role for objects in generating cultural meanings; in doing social and cultural work through processes of differentiation, objectication and integration (Appadurai, 1986; Baudrillard, 1996[1968]; Douglas and Isherwood, 1979). While the material culture approach to consumption retains a concern for consumer practice and ideation as the foundational studies of consumption had previously emphasized it devotes particular attention to the object of consumer interest as the visible part of culture (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979: 44) which serves to animate practice, or evoke feelings, in consumers. Because it both broadens and empiricizes the analytic focus, the material approach to consumerism is able to fruitfully address issues of practice and relations between people and consumer objects (Emmison and Smith, 2000).
PERSPECTIVES ON MATERIAL CULTURE: OBJECTS, SIGNS AND CULTURE
There are two principal theoretical paradigms which should not form mutually exclusive, or antagonistic, analytic frameworks for the interpretation of consumer objects: one based in semiotics, which emphasizes the ability of objects to represent or signify something in social discourse; the other in cultural anthropology, which focuses on what people do with objects and the ways in which objects are culturally embedded in social relations. The object-signier approach to consumer objects has its origins in the critical semiotics of Roland Barthes (1993[1957]), whose analyses of a burgeoning modern consumer society seems to have inspired the semio-structural analyses of commodity-signs found in Baudrillards (1996[1968], 1981) earlier works (Gottdiener, 1995: 39; Kellner, 1989: 26). While Barthes Mythologies works to expose the ideological abuse hidden in the decorative display of the new jewel-like objects of consumer society (1993[1957]: preface), and as such is a good example of the semiotic approach to objects, it is his analysis of the system of the structural codes of fashion (1967) which seems most important in framing the sign-based account of domestic objects undertaken by Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillards concern for a sociological analysis of interior design in The System of Objects (1996[1968]) is predicated on an assumption about the nature of modern objects that is further developed in his later work on the political economy of commodity signs: Objects never exhaust themselves in the functions they serve observes Baudrillard (1981: 32); meaning that the objects we surround ourselves with have value greater than strict functional utility. On the one hand, objects are simply expendable resources, a certain utility is constituted in particular objects that is immediately apparent and transparent; and
118
on the other, objects are signiers whether it be beauty, prestige, status or difference. In his political economy of sign value, Baudrillard (1981: 29) goes on to reject the explanation of objects founded in terms of use value as a realist or empiricist hypothesis. Instead, he moves to advance a basic proposition that was substantially operationalized in Bourdieus Distinction by asserting that an accurate theory of objects will not be established upon a theory of needs and their satisfaction, but upon a theory of social prestations and signication (1981: 30). Baudrillards work on consumerism and the structural logic of value in consumer society laid signicant groundwork for broader conceptualizations of postmodernity, and seems especially inuential in the consequent generation of theoretical observations about the nature of consumer practice in that epoch. For example, Baudrillards denition of consumption as an activity consisting of the systematic manipulation of signs (1996[1968]) is an important early claim regarding the use of object-things by bricoleur-like consumers to signify aspects of self, which has been taken up by contemporary theoreticians concerned with the nature of consumerism in postmodernity (Featherstone, 1991: 67; Giddens, 1991: 198; Lash and Urry, 1994: 61). While in these early works Baudrillard demonstrates an awareness of how his object-signier account was a preliminary stage of the analysis of objects (1981: 35) and that the more important role for objects was as scaffolding for a global structure of the environment (1981: 35), the course of his intellectual interest seems to have precluded a further contribution to a sociological analysis of domestic interiors. While related work in the sociology of consumption is predicated on the symbolic use of consumption to establish difference, manage status and denote extravagance (Barthes, 1993[1957]; Bourdieu, 1984; Goffman, 1951; Veblen, 1899), accounts of consumer objects have not focused solely on semiotic capacity. Much of the recent work in cultural anthropology has drawn attention to the culturally embedded nature of consumption objects; that is, the social and emotive capacities of objects that people acquire and use (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979; McCracken, 1988; Riggins, 1994). Along similar lines, research by environmental psychologists and consumer researchers has analysed the way material objects facilitate self-cultivation (Csikszentmihalyi and RochbergHalton, 1981) through psychological processes of attachment, integration and differentiation (Belk, 1988; Dittmar, 1992; Schultz et al., 1989). Unfettered from the baggage associated with the myths of consumption (Miller, 1995), this body of research has laid useful groundwork for a sociological conception of the material aspects of consumerism. By incorporating theory from cultural anthropology and environmental psychology, it enriches the structural account of objects presented by Baudrillard (1996[1968]), and the class-dependent account of cultural
119
consumption elaborated in Bourdieus (1984) model of social space. In this broadly cultural approach, objects retain importance as signiers, however the process of signication is embedded in the context of social and cultural meanings, rather than existing autonomously within a structured system of signs. Douglas and Isherwood (1996[1979]) have provided what stands as probably the most systematic treatment of the nature of goods as cultural props. They acknowledge that while goods, or consumer objects, originate in the system of capitalist production, at the same time all material possessions carry social meanings and, as resources for thinking, commodity-objects make visible and stable categories of culture (1996[1979]: 38). As something for making sense of the world, consumer objects assist people in demarcating social categories and thus assigning worth and value to things and people (Douglas and Isherwood, 1996[1979]; Douglas, 1996). Daniel Millers (1987) programme for material culture studies argues similarly for studies of consumption that acknowledge relations between people and goods in industrial societies. Miller switches the frame of analysis from the economic realm of objectication, to the process of consumer objectication. One of Millers signicant arguments centres on the important work consumers do in creating meaning from goods in industrial modernity, and in particular he emphasizes the semiotic and cultural labour involved in, and after, the purchase of commodities (see also Miller, 1998). It is in this period of time when a vast morass of possible goods is replaced by the specicity of the particular item that is chosen, and subsequently purchased (Miller, 1987: 190). The abstractions of production and exchange emphasized in structural accounts of consumption are replaced by the consumers search for meaning:
. . . consumption as work may be dened as that which translates the object from an alienable to an inalienable condition; that is, from being a symbol of estrangement and price value to being an artifact invested with particular inseparable connotations. (Miller, 1987: 190) THE HOME AND OBJECTS
Because of the peculiar nature of domestic space, particularly the way public and private space is distributed within the home, an analysis of domestic objects must consider both the socio-semiotic approach and the socio-cultural approach to objects. The home is an important special case in material culture studies. Domestic spaces are not exclusively public or private, as such meanings shift according to the social and familial location of visitors to the spatial organization of the home. Domestic objects, too, serve shifting purposes; an issue that requires application of both the semiotic and cultural approach to objects. The semiotic value
120
of domestic material culture varies according to the needs of the situation; objects sometimes have a public role in the home as a signier of status, style or taste, and other times do very private psychological work for the viewer which revolves around the object serving as a focus for managing self-identity, family relations or self-esteem. While the home is a rich site for inquiry into the nature of relations between people and objects and presents opportunities for ethnographic research, the spaces of the home and the role of the researcher in that space, raise conceptual, methodological and political issues. Environmental psychologists have emphasized the psychic dimensions of home. Not only are domestic interiors spaces to be played with via a persons environmental preferences (Bonnes et al., 1987), they are spaces of familial and friendship-based interaction. At a deeper level, homes are seen as warehouses of personal experience (Lawrence, 1985: 129). As Bachelard (1994[1958]) points out, the home is a site that represents a basic and important division in geographical space between the house (self) and non-house (non-self, or other). In the environmental psychology paradigm, homes are sites for the application of resources directed toward the maintenance of self-identity and self-esteem, family relations, and notions of insiders/outsiders (Laumann and House, 1970; Lawrence, 1985, 1987; Rapoport, 1969). But in addition to their psychological dimension, homes carry a freight of sociological meaning. Ways of living in the home, and the organization and selection of the system of objects within its spaces, are circumscribed by moral prescriptions associated with family, gender and class positions. For example, in their study of a sample of working and lower-middle class homes in Britain, Madigan and Munro (1996) found that rather than being a site for the expression of nely-tuned aesthetic choices and modes of self-expression, notions of etiquette, comfortability and welcoming were centrally important in framing the home. This nding complements the view of the home as a site that sits somewhere near the middle of a gradient between interior and exterior, or self and society (Altman and Gauvain, 1981; Lawrence, 1987). Along similar lines, in Australian homes the verandah can be interpreted as an intermediate zone that effectively lets the householder lter strangers from intimates, and allows dwellers to live aspects of their lives on the outside while maintaining physical, emotional and security connection to the house interior. In the same way, Veras (1989) study of the use and decoration of large, prominent windows at the front of many Dutch homes demonstrates how the issue of control of the transitional spaces between interior and exterior is manifested in different cultural and environmental settings. In sociological research the living room is assigned an especially important role. Because the living room is a transactional space for the household as well as a stage for selective contacts with the outside
121
world (Riggins, 1994: 101), it is a useful site for examining the relations of individuals to their desired tastes and home ideals, and the expression of identity (see also Altman and Gauvain, 1981; Laumann and House, 1970).
HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS AND THE ACCOUNTING PROCESS SOME CASES
This paper uses four case studies of domestic objects, selected from a larger project of interviews with householders. The project from which these cases are taken is set in the city of Brisbane, capital of the state of Queensland, Australia (Pop. 1.5 million). The cases reported here are with participants in a middle to high socio-economic position. The suburbs they live in are near-city, older suburbs, with generally older, renovated housing. These neighbourhoods contain some of the citys most prestigious housing. Using face-to-face interview extracts as data where householders talk about epiphanic, pivotal objects in their lives aspects of the relations between people and household objects are elaborated. In the discussion which follows, I consider each case in turn, then seek to evaluate the way studies of epiphanic objects can contribute to accounts of consumption and taste cultures, pointing to the development of an account of taste based in the practical aesthetics of contemporary material culture. This involves an examination of certain methodological issues associated with using domestic objects to account for aesthetic preferences. 1. A NNA S O VEN Annas oven is a contentious, problematic object. Its polysemic nature a combination of matters which seem to relate to style, context, price and role necessitates much work by Anna to convert the oven to something which can sit naturally and comfortably in her home. Annas talk about the oven demonstrates the way aesthetic choices can relate to political values as well as to the functional nature of objects; and how objects can offer frames through which the nature of household relations is claried. First however, it is important to situate Anna in a social context. Around 50 years old, Anna is a university tutor and project manager in the social work department of a large university. She has dual undergraduate degrees and a postgraduate qualication in social science. Anna is therefore well acquainted with the practice of social scientic research and also importantly, with some of the broad controversies that surround social theories of consumerism. Anna lives in a large colonial house situated on an elevated position in the inner-west of the city. The house is
122
fronted by a cottage garden decorated with a pond and statue, and a winding gravel path. The garden has a range of established shrubbery which denote history or age, planted in a classic romantic cottage style, and including standard roses, old grape vines and large azalea shrubs. We can see her expertise in these elds in her standpoint on the stainless steel, European oven that sits centrally along one wall of her newly renovated kitchen. Annas kitchen has recently been renovated, and thus became a focus for the start of our interview. The task of balancing new, glossy surfaces with the traditional structures and materials inherited with the historic home has been a chief goal for Anna, and her notion of what is aesthetically acceptable hinges on generating this balance:
. . . we struggled over the style because we wanted it to t in with the house, which is 120 years old, um . . . so we wanted the benets of modern technology with a sympathy with the house, we ended up with the wooden cupboards and um . . . mimicking the old safe doors, to break that total timber look with the stainless steel benches which are pretty utilitarian, but still I think actually blend in . . . I think it goes really well with the timber as well as being utilitarian, so its not just utilitarian its the look that it creates which is a blend of sort of modern practicality with traditional style.
The epiphany object in question here, the oven, is modern in appearance; though its straight, solid styling also allows it to signify a sense of classicism and authenticity above and beyond its stainless steel shine. It is a large European-brand oven, priced at several thousand dollars, made in stainless steel and glass. The style of the oven is currently fashionable, though not yet widely popular because of its cost and size, and the industrial connotations some consumers may assign to it. Its shape and lack of decorative parts suggest an economy of design: an elegant sturdiness; but, its make and materials denote European standards (seen from the perspective of the Australian consumer). This is an oven for those who are aware of the aesthetics of food preparation and the role of cooking equipment in preparing good food. But rather than focus on its aesthetic qualities and status signifying capacities, in the following exchange Anna represents her new oven through a range of frames, many of which are non-aesthetic. What is apparent through this exchange is the psychic work invested in the incorporation of the commodity object into a system of meaning that is subjectively experienced, but built upon relationships at a range of social levels:
Anna (A): Its almost kind of like an art piece because visually you see it coming through that open space, and it ts in with the house, and I guess it says something fairly traditional, not necessarily that I espouse completely to those ideals.
123
Interviewer (I): What message does it send? A: Well, I guess something about the relationship of food and household, and thats involved in nurturing . . . theres a lot of debate about that actually ... I: What about? A: Well my partners very . . . has a high input into domestic decisions which is fairly unusual I gather after talking to the people who sell commodities, theyve had to take a negotiating role . . . I: So what is the debate about? A: My partner liked it, he wanted it more than I did, I said, like I dont cook enough to justify this kind of oven, does this mean that youre going to cook? I: So did he see it as an art piece? A: No, I see it as an art piece because I dont use it enough to justify it. I: How do you feel about an oven being commodied as an art piece? A: To me, its just a pragmatic resolution of ok, Im not going to hang on to this one, and its really nice looking and we do use it enough. I: What sort of oven would you have gone for? A: Something out of sight . . . something smaller . . . but considering the pragmatics that this is a fairly large space, I mean if were going to use it, then it does balance the space and something smaller would look ridiculous . . . so against that Ive got my sense of balance and space . . . those sorts of things are pretty important as well as whether something is utilitarian or useful, beautiful or . . . I: So you like the styling and the look? A: Yeah yeah, its just really if I spend that theres a pressure to . . . you know, and I dont see myself as someone traditional who spends a lot of time cooking every night, but on the other hand I do have a bit more time now and were spending more time um . . . creating meals that are attractive and more of an art form than something just to eat.
Through the course of this exchange we see both Anna, and the interviewer, seeking an understanding of how the oven is interpreted by Anna. There is no straightforward answer, because the oven is pivotal in Annas account of the aesthetic, spatial and economic issues involved in renovating the kitchen. In her rst statement on the oven, Anna conrms that the aesthetic qualities of the object are critical by suggesting the oven is kind of like an art piece. However, this sparks a range of other issues to be addressed, before Anna returns to her perception of the aesthetic qualities of the oven at the end of the extract through ideas about spatial balance, scale and beauty. Through the
124
middle of the extract, and thinking through her ideas about the object, we can see where Anna problematizes the purely aesthetic nature of the oven. She identies how the oven is placed within political issues related to gender roles in the family associated with nurturing and domesticity, and how choosing the oven involves aspects of compromise and power that need to be reconciled within her own relationship. The crucial point to emphasize here is the way Anna thinks through the object in the course of the conversation as an epiphany object, it is deployed by her to explain and account for a range of important issues. By weighing-up alternative accounts and meanings for the researcher, Anna provides a narrative context for the object, and accomplishes her personal account of taste within the setting of the research interview. The epiphanic object allows Anna control of her narrative through the deployment of a concrete example, and in turn, emerges from the interview as a key resource for the researcher to offer a synopsis of her narrative. 2. H ELEN S C HAIR For Helen, a chair that sits in a corner of the main bedroom is an epiphany object. Helen reports it as a relatively straightforward exemplar, free of the problematic status of Annas oven. The chair is interpreted by Helen through an aesthetic frame, and provokes her to reect on its style and design. This does not mean Helens account of the chair is less sophisticated than Annas reection on the oven, only that the existential issues, which surfaced in Annas talk about her oven, are not apparent. Partly, this difference may come back to other social characteristics. Throughout the interview, Helen portrays a high level of aesthetic competence in Bourdieus terms, she has mastered the symmetries and correspondences (1984: 174) associated with her choices. She is someone who places a high value on appropriate home styles and choices, to the extent that she works with an interior designer through important phases of home renovation. Helen and her partner are both professionals in high-salary positions. Helen lives in the innernorth-east of the city on top of a prominent hill with outstanding views to the east. In terms of questions of taste and style, Helen could be classied as modern classicist: one who is committed to traditional, classic notions of good taste which are based on subtle colour combinations founded in whites and creams, with soft blues and greens as highlight colours. Helens aesthetic choices are clearly not directed towards the bright or ostentatious. Rather, decorative schemes are themed consistently through the house, employ neutral-based colours, and present an image of understatement and timelessness that are typically ascribed characteristics of
125
classic good taste. Asked during the interview to describe her own style, Helen responds:
Pretty minimalist, without being minimalist in terms of futuristic minimalist. I certainly tend to be a . . . its the same with the way I dress, fairly uncluttered, fairly simple, clean lines, certainly very neutral in colours, simple patterns, very classic I guess.
Helen has such a highly developed conception of what constitutes her style that she is able to adroitly sum up her aesthetic values through the use of an exemplar object a chair that stands in a prominent corner of the main bedroom. Helen uses the chair as a prop for her account. The chair apart from its functional or use value, which is not addressed by Helen is an object that signies, and summarizes, the style of its owner and the ambience of the house. Its simplicity, neutrality and classical enduring style are instructive:
I cant see myself ever really taking the plunge and going really bright with the upholstery. As I said, in the main bedroom, come in and Ill show you, its probably the most recent. To me that chair, that sums up my idea. Thats me, I love that. That sort of cream, neutral, New England look.
Helens chair then sits as an example, reminding her of the bounds of her own aesthetic variance which she describes as: really simple patterns and simple colours and again very neutral. Unlike Anna and her new oven, there are no serious problematic issues to be faced in the chair. The most challenging in Helens terms is the progressive modernization of her taste and the chance that the chair will no longer t variations in her style. However, Helen feels that such variations are unlikely to challenge the basic, well-honed values of her modern, classic aesthetic: I dont think Ill ever be ultra-modern, but I think Ill go a little less cottagey. One of the impressive, important aspects of Helens aesthetic value system is the degree to which it is a nely tuned, almost technical, scheme of knowledge (Bennett, Emmison and Frow, 1999: 56). Its basis is so thoroughly realized in Helen that the nuanced distinctions she makes of shade and style in material culture are rendered entirely natural. 3. C HRISTINA S WARTISHOG Christina lives in the same suburb as Helen, though with a less prestigious view, and is approximately the same age (around 30). However, her aesthetic choices and the reasoning behind them, are widely different. Christina has lived in this house, originally the family home, for over 25 years. Now without both parents, the house belongs to Christina and her sister. The house is an architect-designed bungalow built in the late
126
1940s. Christinas family was originally from a farming region, and Christina retains a strong afnity for the country despite her privileged private school education, which she now rails against. Christine sets apart her own identity from what she sees as the snob based culture of most in her suburb to the extent that she has now centred important aspects of her life in different parts of the city:
Christina (C): I live my social life in other suburbs, I certainly started off doing the old creek hammo sort of deal . . . because I went to St Margarets, and most of the people were private school around here we had Churchie boys, we had Grammar next door, we had Churchie down the road, Ascot state school was about as state school as it got . . . everyone went to Ascot till grade seven and then went off to their private schools at enormous expense . . . um, that was when I rst started but then it didnt really suit me very much so I sort of moved on to different sorts of people so I hang out at Manseld these days to tell you the truth . . . Interviewer (I): So you have friends out there? C: yeah, yeah . . . I: So what sort of activities do you get into, what sort of lifestyle and leisure things do you like? C: well . . . I suppose pretty much the pub sort of scene really, just a few pubs, go to the football a bit, go to the races a bit, I dont go to the races as much as I used to, thats more for this sort of crowd. And I do a lot of things on my own really, I just go over there, Ive got a boyfriend over there and spend a few nights and thats about it really . . . I: Were your parents more into this scene? C: Well, it was a single parent family and mother actually came from out west, but thats probably why we didnt jump straight into this, she knew a few people who had country links but she didnt really know this sort of snob value group here . . .
This is important contextual material for the aesthetic stance maintained by Christina, which is relatively hostile to conventional concerns about colour, design and style:
Ive always been totally disinterested in dcor, I dont care as long as theres a seat, a kitchen and a bed, thats all I really care about (I: so you dont have an interest in it?) no, dont care, really dont care . . . I like clean, I like neat, but I dont care if it sort of clashes or whatever.
Christina moves to distance herself from mainstream ideas about taste and style, on the basis of its elitist nature, its lack of person-centred authenticity, and its perceived lack of relevance to her key leisure interests: cable television, pub culture, football and clothes shopping. This
127
anti-style position is reected in one of the objects Christina chooses to discuss in our interview the wartishog:
Im a bit of a wood girl, and I can show you another piece that I like Ill bring it to you . . . I got this over in Africa for $50, and one of my friends did it up for me . . . I like the warthog, my cousins been living in Africa for about seven years, we just went over there I think it was two years ago and did a driving holiday around South Africa and it was just in one of those reserves, its really a game park, a lot of them carve them, but he was just a really good piece . . . but not nished, totally unnished, that sheen, the nish has been done since Ive been back, which has made it come up a whole lot better . . . hes just unique, everyone goes ughhh . . . whats that!!! . . . wartishog . . . I sort of like oddities I suppose, something that no one else has got thats a bit weird you know . . . not because its really expensive but because its a bit weird . . . its unique, youre not going to nd things like that in many houses in Hamilton, are you?
As an epiphany object the wartishog seems to have been chosen partly for its perceived lack of conventional beauty or fashionability for its aggressively anti-style position. Seen in this context, Christina adopts a strong political attitude toward conventional prescriptions of taste, which has its origins in an anti-fashion outlook. At the same time, Christinas stance is display-oriented, because of its emphasis on the shock-value of the object that is manifested through its perceived strangeness. The sign-value of the object for Christina is thus not based in conventional standards of beauty or taste. Its value lies in the same domain as other status objects, but obtains its currency through different signiers: physically shocking rather than rened and understated, provocative rather than calming, aggressive rather than peaceful. In addition, it is apparent that the wartishog is strongly associated with Christinas experiences of travel, family and friends. It is an exotic object (Riggins, 1994), linked to a specic touring experience and the contacts with friends and family involved in such travel. 4. J ULIE S B IG B LUE In a home heavily invested with objects, Julie chooses her big blue vase as her favourite. The big blue vase is positioned for maximum exposure, on a display bench adjacent to the entrance foyer of her home. Julies home is near new, though it is located in a prominent position in an establishment part of the city. Like an increasing number in her area, Julie and her husband purchased an old home as a way of buying into the suburb, demolished it, and constructed their new home. Attracted by the suburbs prominent, prestigious position, this group of gentriers who demolish older dwellings and build new homes in contemporary, popular styles is the subject of debate in the area. While grand colonial-style
128
houses retain long-lasting popularity in the suburb, more recent post-war homes tend to be removed by incoming well-resourced builder-occupiers. As reported by a range of participants in this study, there is debate amongst residents that revolves around the aesthetics of the suburbs second generation architecture, and the transformational power of the builder-gentriers new-money. Julie took on planning and supervising the building of her home as a material contribution to her relationship, in her words she was doing her bit. The plan for her house involved Julie and an architect making alterations to a home plan called the Aqua Bella. The public and living areas of Julies home, occupying the ground oor, are full of a range of exotic objects, status objects (Riggins, 1994) and relational objects. Many have an exotic avour which reects the international nature of her husbands work as an advertising executive: Chinese peach wood furniture (I mean you dont get anything like that here unfortunately), 1813 Northern China pewter, marble statues in international hotel style, a carved Asian dragon drum, a Pakistan rosewood table setting, and a 1920s English oak dining table. And amongst this surfeit of objects is Julies favourite the big blue vase:
Interviewer (I): Do you have a favourite object around the house? Julie (J): Yes, my big blue vase. I: Oh, out the front? J: Yes. I: Because of . . .? J: Its a one off, theres nothing like it. I: And the colour? J: Well, hes just an amazing guy, what he does is he gets the glass and blows that onto it and then he actually moulds it, and then it goes back into the kiln cause its actually . . . that was actually cut off a pipe so that is very special to me cause there is no other one like that. I love that piece, its very unusual . . . we were very fortunate . . . um, my husband works in advertising so we do mix with I suppose what youd call arty type people and when we were in New Zealand we got to know whos a very famous artist . . . hes actually one of the top glass blowers . . . there are only four or ve guys around the world that blow glass and it takes three guys to hold the damn thing . . .
For Julie, the big blue vase is a status object that gains value primarily through its uniqueness. Despite being led by the interviewer at one juncture, Julie does not talk about aspects of the vases style or aesthetic features. Instead, she gives prominence to the uniqueness of the object: it is not available to others and therefore is more valuable to her.
129
Accompanying this, Julie does accord some importance to time and place factors that are found in the object, though even this is framed through the status enhancement of becoming friends with the artist.
DISCUSSION
The study of objects, things or goods has the potential to become a highly abstracted form of theorizing. Like concepts such as space or body, to write about objects lends the author an abstracted tone of theoretical eminence, as if the topic at hand represents a philosophical problem of supreme substance. This is not to say that objects should not be theorized, or that they are not important in a social context. Clearly, objects occupy a similar position to space, time and bodies; they are foundational media through which social life is experienced. Part of the problem with accounting for objects is the difculty gathering eld data that give the user of the object a narrative position. The routinely undervalued voice of the consumer within consumption studies literature illustrates the prominence given to theorizing at the expense of accounting for empirical complexities. However, in that oeuvre there are now a growing number of useful accounts which privilege the consumers standpoint, including more recently: Steven Miles on youth consumption cultures and retro-sneakers (1996), Daniel Miller on the practice of grocery shopping as a form of provisioning (1998), and Alison Clarke (1998) on modes of commodity acquisition through catalogue shopping. Likewise, in the area of aesthetics and the self, interpretive and qualitative perspectives are more prominent. David Halles (1993) study of art in North American homes is distinguished by its willingness to give householders the position of curator of their domestic space. Michele Lamonts (1992) account of the operation of ethical and moral boundaries, personal repertoires and style, and general approaches to life and work in upper-middle-class France and North America is exemplary in its deployment of qualitative techniques to capture the essence of codes of practice which direct modes of operation in the social and aesthetic world. In the Australian context, Bennett, Emmison and Frows (1999) critique and elaboration of the work of Bourdieu (1984) incorporates interview data as a central component of their study of national taste cultures. However, in relation to a sociology of consumption sensitive to the theoretical concerns of recent versions of material culture studies, empirical accounts are thin on the ground; in fact, disproportionately so with respect to the healthy number of theoretical treatments. As I have suggested, one reason for this imbalance relates to the intellectual attractiveness of theorizing objects, much like space and the body; though it also relates to the methodological and practical difculties involved in
130
doing this type of research. Riggins (1994) autobiographical account of his family home is quite pessimistic on this matter. While his categories of domestic objects are useful and original, by their exhaustive nature they end up being restrictive and practically inexible. Additionally, to reach the theoretical standards set by Riggins would seem to require granting the researcher near unregulated access to the domestic setting this may be the reason why Riggins model is apparently based substantially on his family home. While this paper is based on case studies all women who are relatively privileged despite their diverse educational and social backgrounds it provides useful empirical data to account for objects on a range of fronts. Signicantly, it sheds light on the link between aesthetic and moral judgements as they are manifested as boundary markers. As Bennett, Emmison and Frow (1999: 8) point out, Howard Becker (1974) made this link between aesthetic and moral outlook explicit some time ago in his analysis of art cultures. However, in Bourdieus (1984) inuential model of taste and aesthetic judgement, morality and ethics play an insignicant part in strategies of distinction. Lamont (1992) has exposed this deciency most adroitly by demonstrating that moral outlook is an important resource for social differentiation and integration. Adapting this argument, I would continue by pointing out that what makes aesthetic judgement so powerful as a source of social differentiation is that it is partly based on the ethical and moral values of the claimant. In the cases discussed here, all apart from Julie and her big blue vase give prominence to self-conduct and the ethical-aesthetic self in their discussion of objects: Anna is concerned with the politics of the object and the family relations it sits within; Helens chair is an exemplar object which sums up her aesthetic outlook and lets her situate her own taste within a known style; Christina rejects conventional suburban good taste and champions the authentic self through her wartishog. These objects are not evaluated as purely aesthetic things, but have been incorporated into the respondents value system and act as resources for thinking through broader social and cultural distinctions (Douglas and Isherwood, 1996[1979], Douglas, 1996). It is for this reason that they can be regarded as epiphany objects. Using Lamonts (1992) terminology, these epiphany objects are material boundary markers, which suggest things people wish to cultivate about their aesthetic and moral selves, and exclude polluting aesthetics. It is this ltering role that sees them acquire the status of moral objects. A different object; an alien colour, shape or texture would not substitute. Daniel Millers (1987) point about the creative work of consumption occurring after purchase rings true in the cases discussed here: through the course of their trajectory as material components of human existence, household objects offer continuous opportunities for managing the boundaries of self and non-self in a process which fuses aesthetics with ethics.
131
Additionally, the gender implications of such aesthetic-ethical narratives require further consideration in studies of consumption and taste. While I have not reported data from male participants in this study, research is required to clarify the gendered nature of taste and aesthetic judgements; specically, what narratives, rationales and accounts do men give for their aesthetic decisions? The cultural assignment of consumption as a feminine activity has been well documented in feminist literature, and acknowledged in consumption studies literature (see Campbell, 1997). Simmels (1957[1904]: 5501) theory was that women were more susceptible to engagement with fashion and a popular aesthetic as a requirement of their social position that striving for individualization through competence in taste and aesthetics is a means for women to achieve a sense of conspicuousness in the public sphere. Commenting on the relation of gender to aesthetic judgement Bourdieu has reported, seeming to suggest that the traditional gendered division of labour has encouraged women to employ aesthetic distinctions less frequently and systematically than men, that men are, ex ofcio, on the side of culture whereas women (like the working class) are cast on the side of nature (1984: 40). The following evidence, which suggests the aesthetic expertise of women, may well contradict this assertion. However, it should be noted that the home is a special case in the realm of practical aesthetics, which, it could be argued, men are likely to reject in favour of deliberation on other matters. Madigan and Munro (1996) have found that women tend to bear chief responsibility for decorative choices in the home. In a study of Australian taste cultures, Bennett, Emmison and Frow (1999) report that while most of the women they interviewed were able to talk animatedly about their homes, this was true for few men. In their interviews with men about the house, male interviewees were found to be taciturn, distancing themselves from questions of aesthetics, and oriented toward practical concerns. Campbell (1997: 176) reports evidence that in shopping environments male interviewees have difculty making judgements of taste and that some men avoid aesthetic decisions altogether. Since the cases reported here are exclusively female, it would be expected that male interviewees would rely on a different set of narrative resources and strategies to provide a legitimate account of their tastes. The research reported in this paper is not without methodological dilemmas: management of the domestic setting prior to the interview, and respondents saying what they perceive the researcher wants to hear are issues that need to be considered. However, there are two strong counter-points that circumscribe the weight of these issues. The rst is that this impression management constitutes a signicant source of data, particularly for the topic dealt with in this article (see also Lamont, 1992: 21). The aspirations people have for their home, and their ideal ways of
132
presenting and talking about their home and the objects inside it, are just as important as how they might actually live in their home. The second point relates to the astute use of other veriable forms of data available to the researcher in the domestic setting: is the interviewee generally consistent in their aesthetic and moral relations with the home? Is what the interviewee says about an object realistic given other cues in the home? This need to t object-relations into a larger picture of household and interpersonal relations may explain why the case-study approach is often used as an aid to the development of theory in sociocultural accounts of consumption and lifestyle (Bennett, Emmison and Frow, 1999; Bourdieu, 1984; Lamont, 1992; Riggins, 1994). Perhaps more critically in terms of developing procedures for proposing an interpretive account of taste and material culture, researchers should bear in mind how such an interpretive account deals with methodological issues of truth and ction, reality and representation. Thus, should the interview data presented in this article be seen as the literal, authentic truth of peoples aesthetic preferences? To what degree have the normative process of interviewing and the presence of a researcher in their private, domestic space inuenced peoples responses? Even more fundamentally and problematically as Denzin asks (1997), to what extent can researchers assume that subjects have unproblematic access to their own lived experience? In the study of domestic material culture through face-to-face interviews, we might even expect such potential problems to be heightened. Justifying aesthetic choice using an aesthetic rationale is difcult for lay people to accomplish. The answer to each of the questions may well highlight a multitude of epistemological quandaries; however, this is not necessarily a problem, but a strength that can be turned to the theorists advantage. In fact, it illuminates a crucial theoretical position about taste, aesthetics and domestic material culture which is assisted by the insights of reexive ethnography and theories of social accountability. What these interviews demonstrate is how having taste is an ongoing narrative accomplishment, as much as it is an objective, xed form of social and cultural capital. In identifying and narrativizing their tastes for the researcher through the use of epiphany objects, the respondents account for themselves, their home, and implicitly a universe of others through the construction of a taste narrative. The epiphany objects raised in the research interviews thus perform an important role for the respondent: they allow abstract ideas about style, taste and aesthetic preference to be concretized, affording respondents opportunity to elaborate their narrative using the epiphany object as an anchor. In turn, the strategy of focusing on a key household object is also protable for the researcher, as the epiphany object often signies a persons aesthetic ideal, thus
133
reducing the complexity of the setting for the researcher and allowing greater clarity in interpretation of the object-saturated domestic environment. These methodological issues can be seen more broadly to revolve around the epistemological dilemma of whether, to use Shotters (1984: 4) distinction, these data have been found or made (see also Holstein and Gubriums discussion of active interviewing, 1997). To recognize they are made acknowledges they are texts which are actively constructed within the research interview, and embedded in a wider discourse about taste, the home and the family, which serve to make accountable everyday aspects of peoples reality. If this is accepted, then issues of respondent truth-telling can to a large degree be pushed to the background, and the ability of narratives of taste to bridge the real and ideal in peoples lives becomes the key issue for investigation. The implications for research into the sociology of taste and practical aesthetics is that ethnographic studies, conversation analysis and narrative analysis can yield protable insights. Taste and forms of aesthetic expertise are reexive accomplishments, based in talk and narrative construction, and are presented to visitors, guests and researchers alike, as they are required. Even the most emptied-out, banal objects of modern domestic material culture have a role to play. As a consequence, having taste and making a legitimate aesthetic choice is inextricably linked to creating an accountable and convincing narrative, both for the immediate requirement of the researcher and for the narrativization of the psycho-social self; as Denzin (1989a: 82) points out we create the persons we write about, just as they create themselves when they engage in storytelling practice.
Acknowledgement I would like to thank my colleagues in Sociology at The University of Queensland Philip Smith, Michael Emmison, Brad West, Andrew Peake; and also the anonymous referees from Journal of Material Culture for their advice and criticism, which has helped in the nal preparation of this paper.
References Altman, Irwin, and Gauvain, Mary (1981) A Cross-Cultural and Dialectic Analysis of Homes, in Lynn S. Liben, Arthur H. Patterson and Nora Newcombe (eds) Spatial Representation and Behaviour Across the Life Span, pp. 283320. New York: Academic Press. Appadurai, Arjun (1986) Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value, in Arjun Appadurai (ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, pp. 363. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Bachelard, Gaston (1994[1958]) The Poetics of Space, Trans. Maria Jolas. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Barthes, Roland (1993[1957]) Mythologies, Trans. Annette Lavers. London: Vintage.
134
Barthes, Roland (1967) The Fashion System, Trans. M. Ward and R. Howard. New York: Hill and Wang. Baudrillard, Jean (1996[1968]) The System of Objects, Trans. J. Benedict. London: Verso. Baudrillard, Jean (1981) For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, Trans. C. Levin. USA: Telos Press. Becker, Howard (1974) Art as Collective Action, American Sociological Review, 39(6): 76776. Belk, Russell W. (1988) Possessions and the Extended Self, Journal of Consumer Research, 15 (September): 13965. Bennett, Tony, Emmison, Michael, and Frow, John (1999) Accounting for Tastes. Australian Everyday Cultures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bonnes, Mirilia, Giuliana, Maria Vittoria, Amoni, Flora, and Bernard, Yvonne (1987) Cross-Cultural Rules for the Optimization of the Living Room, Environment and Behaviour 19(2): 20427. Bourdieu, Pierre (1984) Distinction. A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. Campbell, Colin (1997) Shopping, Pleasure and the Sex War, in Pasi Falk and Colin Campbell (eds) The Shopping Experience, pp. 16676. London: Sage. Clarke, Alison (1998) Window Shopping at Home: Classieds, Catalogues and New Consumer Skills, in Daniel Miller (ed.) Material Cultures. Why Some Things Matter, pp. 7399. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Rochberg-Halton, Eugene (1981) The Meaning of Things. Domestic Symbols and the Self. New York: Cambridge University Press. Denzin, Norman (1989a) Interpretive Biography. London: Sage. Denzin, Norman (1989b) Interpretive Interactionism. London: Sage. Denzin, Norman (1997) Interpretive Ethnography: Ethnographic Practices for the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dittmar, Helga (1992) The Social Psychology of Material Possessions: To Have is to Be. New York: St Martins Press. Douglas, Mary (1996) Thought Styles. Critical Essays on Good Taste. London: Sage. Douglas, Mary, and Isherwood, Baron (1996[1979]) The World of Goods. Towards an Anthropology of Consumption. New York: Basic Books. Emmison, Michael, and Smith, Philip (2000) Researching the Visual. Images, Objects, Contexts and Interactions in Social and Cultural Inquiry. London: Sage. Featherstone, Mike (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage. Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. Goffman, Erving (1951) Symbols of Class Status, British Journal of Sociology 2(4): 294304. Gottdiener, Mark (1995) Postmodern Semiotics: Material Culture and the Forms of Postmodern Life. Oxford: Cambridge. Halle, David (1993) Inside Culture. Art and Class in the American Home. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Holstein, James A. and Gubrium, Jaber F. (1997) Active Interviewing, in David Silverman (ed.) Qualitative Research. Theory, Method and Practice, pp. 11329. London: Sage. Kellner, Douglas (1989) Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Post-Modernism and Beyond. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lamont, Michle (1992) Money, Morals and Manners. The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Lash, Scott, and Urry, John (1994) Economies of Signs and Space. London: Sage.
135
Laumann, Edward O. and House, James S. (1970) Living Room Styles and Social Attributes: The Patterning of Material Artifacts in a Modern Urban Community, in Edward O. Laumann, Paul M. Siegel and Robert W. Hodge (eds) The Logic of Social Hierarchies, pp. 189203. Chicago, IL: Markham Publishing Company. Lawrence, Roderick J. (1985) A More Humane History of Homes: Research Method and Application, in Irwin Altman and Carol M. Werner (eds) Home Environments, pp. 11332. New York: Plenum Press. Lawrence, Roderick J. (1987) What Makes a Home a House?, Environment and Behaviour 19(2): 15468. McCracken, Grant (1988) Culture and Consumption: New Approaches to the Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods and Activities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Madigan, Ruth, and Munro, Moira (1996) House Beautiful: Style and Consumption in the Home, Sociology 30(1): 4157. Mauss, Marcel (1954) The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, Trans. I. Cunnison. London: Cohen and West. Miles, Steven (1996) The Cultural Capital of Consumption: Understanding Postmodern Identities in a Cultural Context, Culture and Psychology 2: 13958. Miller, Daniel (1987) Material Culture and Mass Consumption. Oxford: Blackwell. Miller, Daniel (1995) Consumption as the Vanguard of History, in Daniel Miller (ed.) Acknowledging Consumption: A Review of New Studies, pp. 157. London: Routledge. Miller, Daniel (1998) A Theory of Shopping. Cambridge: Polity Press. Rapoport, Amos (1969) House Form and Culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1993) Narrative Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Riggins, Stephen Harold (1994) Fieldwork in the Living Room: An Autoethnographic Essay, in Stephen Harold Riggins (ed.) The Socialness of Things. Essays on the Socio-Semiotics of Objects, pp. 10147. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Schultz, Susan E., Kleine, Robert E. III and Kernan, Jerome B. (1989) These are a Few of My Favourite Things. Toward an Explication of Attachment as a Consumer Behavior Construct, Advances in Consumer Research 16: 35966. Shotter, John (1984) Social Accountability and Selfhood. New York: Basil Blackwell. Simmel, Georg (1957[1904]) Fashion, The American Journal of Sociology LXII(6): 54158. Veblen, Thorstein (1899) The Theory of the Leisure Class: an Economic Study of Institutions. New York: Modern Library. Vera, Hernan (1989) On Dutch Windows, Qualitative Sociology 12(2): 21534. N I A N W O O D WA R D is a lecturer in sociology in the School of Social Science at the University of Queensland. His current research is in the eld of consumption, taste and aesthetic judgement. His other interests include theories of postmodernization, and urban space and symbolism. Most recently, he has published on consumerism and disorientation in postmodern spaces (The British Journal of Sociology, with Michael Emmison and Philip Smith), on everyday discourses of good and bad taste (Poetics, with Michael Emmison), and in Architectural Theory Review, on historical changes in the discourses of shopping mall architects. Address: Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Archaeology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane Q 4072, Australia. [email: I.Woodward@mailbox.uq.edu.au]
136

Ian Woodward - Domestic Objects

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Ian Woodward - Domestic Objects

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Journal http://mcu.sagepub.

com/ of Material Culture

>> Version of Record - Jul 1, 2001 What is This?

Downloaded from mcu.sagepub.com at UCL Library Services on January 9, 2012

DOMESTIC OBJECTS AND THE TA S T E E P I P H A N Y

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen