The study of material culture is concerned with the relationship between persons and things in the past and in the present, in urban and industrialized and in small-scale societies across the globe. The Handbook of Material Culture provides a critical survey of the theories, concepts, intellectual debates, substantive domains and traditions of study characterizing the analysis of things. It is cutting-edge: rather than simply reviewing the field as it currently exists. It also attempts to chart the future: the manner in which material culture studies may be extended and developed.

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVESIn the Matter of Marxism - Bill MaurerStructuralism and Semiotics - Robert LaytonPhenomenology and Material Culture - Julian ThomasObjectification - Christopher TilleyAgency, Biography and Objects - Janet HoskinsScenes from a Troubled Engagement - Bjørnar Olsen Post-structuralism and Material Culture StudiesColonial Matters - Peter van Dommelen Material Culture and Postcolonial Theory in Colonial SituationsTHE BODY, MATERIALITY AND THE SENSESFour Types of Visual Culture - Christopher PinneyFood, Eating, and the Good Life - Judith FarquarScent, Sound and Synaesthesia - David Howes Intersensuality and Material CultureThe Colours of Things - Diana YoungInside and Outside - Jean-Pierre Warnier Surfaces and ContainersSUBJECTS AND OBJECTSCloth and Clothing - Jane SchneiderHome Furnishing and Domestic Interiors - Robert St GeorgeVernacular Architecture - Suzanne Preston BlierArchitecture and Modernism - Victor Buchli"Primitivism," Anthropology and the Category of "Primitive Art" - Fred MyersTracking Globalization - Robert Foster Commodities and Value in MotionPlace and Landscape - Barbara BenderCultural Memory - Paul ConnertonPROCESS AND TRANSFORMATIONTechnology as Material Culture - Ron EglashConsumption - Daniel MillerDesign, Style and Function - Meg ConkeyExchange - James CarrierPerformance - Jonathan MitchellPresent to Past - Paul Lane EthnoarchaeologyMaterial Culture and Long-term Change - Chris GosdenPRESENTATION AND POLITICSIntellectual Property and Rights - Marilyn Strathern An Anthropological PerspectiveHeritage and the Present Past - Beverley ButlerMuseums and Museum Displays - Anthony Shelton Monuments and Memorials - Michael Rowlands & Christopher TilleyConservation as Material Culture - Diana EastopCollectors and Collecting - Russell Belk