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Merits and limits of the biographic approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Marcel Vellinga
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Extract

In a well-known paper on ‘the cultural biography of things’, Kopytoff (1986) shows that the application of meaning to ‘things’ is of a processual rather than a fixed nature. Mainly focusing his attention on commodities, Kopytoff demonstrates that, like people, ‘objects’ such as slaves, cars, huts and paintings have a social life of their own. The biographies that may be drawn up of the lives of these objects may provide insight into the complex whole of political, economic, moral and aesthetic practices, values and relationships prevalent in the societies in which they are produced, used and discarded.

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Discussion
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Archaeological Dialogues , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , December 1999 , pp. 98 - 101
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Copyright © The Author(s) 1999

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