Memory Mobility and Material Culture

<p>With a focus on the object and where it is situated in time (memory) and space (mobility) <i>Memory Mobility and Material Culture</i> embodies a multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approach.</p><p>The chapters track the movement of the objects and their owner(s) within and between continents countries cities and families. Objects have always been considered with an eye to their worth – economic aesthetic and/or functional. If that worth is diminished their meaning and value disappear they are just <i>things.</i> Yet things can still fulfil functions in our daily lives; they hold symbolic potential from personal memory triggers to focal points of public ritual and religion; from collectors’ obsession to symbols of loss displacement and violence. By bringing into dialogue the work of specialists in ethnology art history architecture and design; literature languages cultures and heritage studies this volume considers how displaced memory – the memory of refugees migrants and their descendants; of those who have moved from the countryside to the city; of those who have faced personal upheaval and profound social change; those who have been forced into exile or experienced major personal or collective loss – can become embodied in material culture. </p><p>This book is important reading to those interested in cultural and social history and cultural studies.</p>