Material culture

Abstract

This article traces the genealogy of ‘materialism’ and thus material cultures’ research within geography and social sciences. Material culture is explained through the notion of historical materialism as a Marxist ideology, and its role within the culture. Subsequent usage of material cultures is explained against this original framework. Raymond Williams’ cultural materialism is explained through the work of geographers Stephen Daniels and Denis Cosgrove. The notion of the super-object is explored through examples from the nineteenth century; these are contrasted with Daniel Millers accounts of material cultures and those new theorizing of material cultures through notions of postcolonial cultures, waste, visual culture, and the body.