The Material Life of Human Beings: Artifacts,

In this ground-breaking work, the distinguished anthropological theorist, Michael Schiffer, presents a profound challenge to the social sciences. Through a broad range of examples, he demonstrates how theories of behavior and communication have too often ignored the fundamental importance of objects in human life. InThe Material Life of Human Beings, the author builds upon the premise that the most important feature of human life is not symbolic language but the incessant and diverse transactions that take place between people and myriad artifacts. The author shows that artifacts are involved in al modes of human communication--be they visual, auditory or tactile. By creatively folding elements of postmodernist thought into a scientific framework, he creates new concepts and models for understanding and analyzing communication and behavior. Challenging established theories within the social sciences, the author offers a reassessment of the centrality ofmaterialityto everyday life.

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

xiii

Introduction

1

(10)

The nature of human existence

1

(4)

Material-culture studies

5

(1)

An archaeological perspective

6

(3)

A preview

9

(2)

What is human behavior?

11

(19)

Introduction

11

(1)

Interactors in the material medium

12

(1)

Interaction modes

13

(3)

Performance and performance characteristics

16

(4)

Analytic units

20

(3)

Interactors and activities revisited

23

(4)

Defining human behavior

27

(1)

Summary

28

(2)

Artifacts and ``interpersonal'' communication

30

(21)

Introduction

30

(1)

Communication modes and performance modes

31

(2)

Visual performance

33

(12)

Acoustic performance

45

(1)

Tactile performance

46

(1)

Chemical performance

47

(2)

Conclusion

49

(2)

Some first principles

51

(16)

Introduction

51

(1)

The nature of archaeological inference

52

(3)

Toward a general communication theory

55

(10)

Summary and conclusion

65

(2)

A general theory of communication

67

(23)

Roles and role playing

67

(1)

Communication processes

68

(2)

Constructing inferences in communication processes

70

(1)

The receiver

70

(9)

The emitter

79

(1)

The sender

80

(2)

Artifacts that play supporting roles

82

(1)

Methodological implications

83

(5)

Discussion and conclusion

88

(2)

Basic communication processes

90

(12)

Introduction

90

(1)

Processes with three interactors

90

(6)

Processes with two interactors

96

(4)

Processes with one interactor

100

(1)

Final remarks

101

(1)

Explaining performance: a general model of receiver response

102

(18)

Introduction

102

(1)

The explanatory question

103

(1)

The model

104

(11)

Discussion

115

(4)

Conclusion

119

(1)

Glossary

120

(6)

Notes

126

(3)

References

129

(22)

Index

151

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The Material Life of Human Beings: Artifacts, Behavior and Communication

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials