Memory, Mobility, and Material Culture

Memory, Mobility, and Material Culture explores how displaced memory can become embodied in material culture, focusing on the object's location, time, and mobility. It brings together specialists from various fields to consider how objects hold symbolic potential and fulfill functions in our daily lives, even if their economic or aesthetic value is diminished.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 18 November 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Memory, mobility, and material culture are interconnected concepts that explore the relationship between objects, their owners, and their spatial and temporal contexts. This multidisciplinary field encompasses various disciplines, including ethnology, art history, architecture, and design, as well as literature, languages, cultures, and heritage studies. By examining the movement of objects and their owners across continents, countries, cities, and families, memory, mobility, and material culture shed light on the complex processes of displacement, migration, and social change.

Objects have always been valued for their economic, aesthetic, and functional aspects, but their significance can diminish over time. However, things do not necessarily lose their meaning and value; they can still fulfill functions in our daily lives. Objects can hold symbolic potential, serving as personal memory triggers, focal points of public rituals and religions, or symbols of loss, displacement, and violence.

This volume brings together the work of specialists from various fields to explore how displaced memory can be embodied in material culture. Displaced memory refers to the memories of refugees, migrants, and their descendants, as well as those who have moved from rural to urban areas, experienced personal upheaval, or faced significant social change. It encompasses the memories of individuals who have been forced into exile or experienced major personal or collective loss.

By examining the ways in which objects carry and preserve memories, this volume seeks to understand how material culture can serve as a means of preserving and transmitting cultural heritage, even in the face of displacement and loss. The chapters in this book explore various case studies, ranging from the displacement of Jewish communities during the Holocaust to the migration of African communities to Europe and North America. Through these examples, the authors demonstrate how objects can become symbols of identity, resilience, and cultural heritage, providing a means of connection and continuity for displaced communities.

Memory, mobility, and material culture are important fields of study for those interested in cultural and social history, cultural studies, and heritage preservation. This volume offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complex relationships between objects, their owners, and their spatial and temporal contexts, providing valuable insights into the processes of displacement, migration, and social change.

Weight: 640g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367631918