1st Edition
The Material Subject Rethinking Bodies and Objects in Motion
Introduction
1. Subjects, their bodies and their objects
Laurence Douny and Urmila Mohan
Matter of work and technology
2. Making do and wanting: The professional diver's predicament
Céline Rosselin-Bareille
3. 'Management’ and its refuse
Agnès Jeanjean
4. Clothing choices and questioning the incorporation of habitus
Marie-Pierre Julien
Matter of heritage
5. Museum objects in motion: Colonial leftovers and French cultural politics
Mélanie Roustan
6. The material shaping of women’s subjectivities. Wild-silk textiles of the Marka-Dafing as a cultural heritage
Laurence Douny
Matter of politics
7. Politics matters: Matière à Politique
Jean-Pierre Warnier
8. Chronicles of a moral war: Ascetic subjectivation and formation of the Javanese state
Romain Bertrand
9. Opening and closing gestures: Weaving rituals that give and sustain life
Myriem Naji
10. Devotion on the home altar as ‘efficacious intimacy’ in a Hindu group
Urmila Mohan
Matter of knowledge
11. Anthropology of knowledge transmission beyond dichotomies. Learning and subjectivation among watchmakers in Switzerland
Hervé Munz
12. The enskilled subject: Two paths to becoming a skilled person among the Paiwan indigenous people of Taiwan
Geoffrey Gowlland
13. Afterword: Matter(s) of material culture
Nathan Schlanger
Biography
Urmila Mohan is an anthropologist and curator of material culture and religion who researches textiles, practices and aesthetics in India and Indonesia. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK.
Laurence Douny specialises in the anthropology and history of materials, techniques and design with a focus on West African wild silks. She is a Research Associate at the cluster ‘Matters of Activity. Image Space Materials’ at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.
'This important book brings French and Anglo anthropological traditions of studying the body in practice, material culture and subjectivity into fruitful dialogue with one another. Informed by Mauss, Foucault and seminal ideas of key Matière à Penser scholars, the editors and contributing authors offer fresh and inspiring perspectives on the ways that bodies and objects ‘move together in the material world.’
~Trevor Marchand, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, SOAS
'A landmark contribution to the cross-disciplinary study of material culture. The Material Subject delivers a timely and original introduction to the influential French Matière à Penser School for anglophone readers. Urmila Mohan and Laurence Douny have crafted an essential addition to the bookshelves of every scholar of material culture.'
~Dan Hicks, Professor of Contemporary Archaeology, University of Oxford
'Urmila Mohan and Laurence Douny have assembled a remarkable collection of essays that present to anglophone audiences the important legacy of the work of the Matière à Penser group, insightfully exploring subjectivation as a material process. This impressive book promises to enrich the study of material culture in a host of fields.'
~David Morgan, Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University
