Course Description: We are surrounded by a material world, which we make, and which makes us. One of the unique characteristics of human beings is the incredible variety of things which we create, use, distribute, cherish, discard, or remake. But what do things mean? How do we interact with them? What do they contribute to the human experience?

This course addresses the "stuff of life" - including the material things and the constructed places around us. As the physical manifestations of culture, things and places both reflect and influence social relationships. Full of meaning, they can be "read" with the techniques of archaeology and material culture studies, and understood with anthropological and

interdisciplinary theory. Thus, we will examine the social lives of things and places, and consider what they say about human relationships with others and with their environment.

Case studies will range from shopping malls to graveyards, zoos, 20th century homes and industrial sites, and battlefields. We will examine material culture in traditional societies, material culture under socialism, and secondhand clothing and recycling/reuse of consumer goods. We will also consider unusual cases such as human artifacts in our solar system (e.g. Moon landing site).

Format: Three seminar hours.

Evaluation: To be announced in the first week of classes.

Projected Enrolment: 50