Mundane Objects

"Pierre Lemonnier is one of the few anthropologists of techniques trained in the tradition of Leroi-Gourhan. In his capable hands, daily objects from New Guinea, as well as from Europe, are taken out of the boring life granted to them by the common notion of 'matter' and begin to extend their connections to the whole social domain, forcing us to understand differently what is meant by 'materiality'."--Bruno Latour, Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris "Lemonnier (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France) addresses debates in anthropology on the role objects play in the lives of their makers and users. A proponent of the cultural technology (technologie culturelle) approach to material culture, Lemonnier focuses on the ways that objects contribute to the sharing of values and to the social relations of the people who engage with them. Using four examples, he argues that objects of everyday use can be just as meaningful as works of art or ritual objects. Three of the examples--garden fences, eel traps, and drums--come from the author's fieldwork with the Ankave and Baruya peoples of Papua New Guinea. The fourth stems from the author's experiences as a collector of model racing cars... An important expansion of the cultural technology approach, the book takes a critical stance toward theorizing on material culture. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty."--CHOICE