Material Objects, Materiality and Social Lives
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Type
Article
Date
2022-03
Journal Title
Social Trends
Journal Editor
Roy, Sanjay K.
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of North Bengal
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Bhowmick, A. (2022). Material Objects, Materiality and Social Lives. Social Trends, 9, 1–22. https://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/4643
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Abstract
Scholars have long invoked ideas of totemism, fetishism and
anthropomorphism as ways of conceptualizing the relation between
humans and their material world. All perspectives, I believe, offer modes
of ‘being’ for both the subjects and objects, transcending and shuffling
subjectivity with desired objectification as and when socially necessary
and culturally permissible. Neither the human subjects nor the material
objects remain constant subjects and/or objects across space and time.
subjectivity is objectively constituted and reciprocally, objectivity is
also subjectively articulated. So, what becomes essential here is the
appearance of objects and the meaning they entail, as assigned by the
experiencing subject to the objects it manages, engages with and feels
through and for them. The experiences arise in an intersubjective
negotiation, whereby the material object is transported from its natural
to a culturally-defining set up, then again returned to its ‘nature’ over
time. The object travels through a life along with its subject, followed
by periodic injunctions of sociability and renewal of its being. This
cyclical journey from cultural significance to objectification to acquiring
subjective agency and then returning to its naturalness again, the object
produces a social life that’s no less significant than that of its human
associates. This paper shall remain an epistemological exercise for
brining into foray these notions and empirically delineating a similar
discourse.
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Edition
Volume
ISBN No
Volume Number
9
Issue Number
ISSN No
2348-6538
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Pages
Pages
1 - 22