Bücher der Reihe Materializing Culture

Presents an examination of the role computers play in our domestic lives. This book deals with questions such as: do computers cause or help to resolve arguments? What role does gender play? Who spends the most time with the computer? And how does the importance of home computers change as we move from childhood through careers to retirement?

Malanggan are "death" figures found in the Pacific which continue to confound anthropologists, they are intended to decompose as symbolic representations of the dead. This work interprets these mysterious agents of resemblance and connection as having a cognitive rather than linguistic basis.

The passionate response of the British public to the Newbury Bypass is a revealing measure of how strongly people feel about trees and the environment.

From road rage in Western Europe to the struggles of cab driving in Africa to the emergence of Black identity in the US, this book examines the humanity of the car, which includes the jealousies, gender differences, fears and moralities that cars give rise to. It provides an informed sense of cars as a significant form of material culture.

Photographs have had an integral and complex role in many anthropological contexts, from fieldwork to museum exhibitions. This book examines how approaching anthropological photographs as "history" can offer both theoretical and empirical insights into these roles.

Adopting a material culture perspective, this study examines the social and cultural history of the Soviet period, looking particularly at social relations and the way individuals variously appropriated architectural space and material culture in order to cope with daily life.

The Acropolis has captured the imaginations of travellers for centuries. However, it is is viewed in the context of 5th-century BC Athenian society, while the many international meanings are overlooked. This book examines the site as an agent for negotiations of power on an international level.

Whether it is our attraction to pharaonic art, the pyramids or practices of mummification, Egypt's unique understanding of materiality speaks to us across space and time. This book explores the fundamental existential questions that not only preoccupied ancient Egyptians, but continue to fascinate people today.

This text explores the construction of gender in Thailand and in particular the role Bangkok plays in establishing gender relations for the whole of the country. It examines the historical and cultural processes underlying Thai public culture, including historical theme parks.

Examining Japanese parks in the context of historical examples of cultural display in Europe, the US and Australia, as well as other Asian examples, this book calls into question the easy adoption of postmodern theory as an ethnocentrically Western phenomenon. It shows that Japan has given theme parks a new mode of interpretation.

What goes on behind closed doors at museums? How are decisions about exhibitions made and who, or what, really makes them? This book answers these searching questions by giving a privileged look behind the scenes at the Science Museum in London. The author shows in vivid detail how exhibitions are created and how public culture is produced.