Material Culture Essay 2014-15 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Material Culture 2014-15 - Essay Example Culture developed with the human advancement in technology. Technology development leads to the study of the various human cultures Kittler, Winthrop-Young, & Wutz, 1999). Art conservation deals with the objects of culture, it provides a safe and secure environment for the objects under study. The Art conservation centre has its own work ethics just like any other work environment. There are three methods of studying material culture Gregg Finleys, Fleming and Prowns Methods. Gregg Finley was an historian who came up with the methods of studying material culture in the society (Mcluhan, 1962). According to him objects as of value while studying the culture. The object of study has five attributes that should be keenly studied. The five attributes of a significance. The object material is the appearance, composition and the colour of the object. The material of the object can explain presence of some culture in that particular object. Construction of the object can reflect culture in terms of its decoration, dimension, quality of the object and fabrication. The function explains why the object was created and how it is used. Provenance explain the history of the object, the owner of the object, user of the object, where and when the object was created (Muri, 2007). The significance of the object states the importance of the object to the owners and the end user s of the object. The Fleming’s methods provide operation that can be used to relate culture to certain objects. The first operation is the identification of the object; establish some unique features in the object and description of the object. The evaluation is the second operation, the object is compared with others similar object in the society to arrive at the final judgement. The third analysis is the interrelationship of the object with the culture to derive a meaning of the object in the society (Hammer & Swaffar, 2012). The final operation is the