Objects and possessions: materials goods in a changing world 1200-1800
The ‘Objects and possessions’ conference takes place from Monday 3 April
to Thursday 6 April 2017 at the University of Southampton’s Avenue
Campus, the home of its Faculty of Humanities.
Objects and possessions define us, yet in many ways we know little about
them from a historical perspective. This interdisciplinary conference
looks at material culture across a long timeframe in order to explore
the worlds of goods and objects across Europe and its overseas colonies,
the connections and relationships facilitated by the exchange of goods,
the importance and interpretation of the inheritance of goods and
objects, and the ways in which goods brokered relationships between
Europe and the wider world in the period. The aim is to deepen our
understanding of how goods ‘worked’ in a variety of social, economic and
cultural contexts.
Call for papers
This interdisciplinary conference looks at material culture across a
long timeframe in order to explore the worlds of goods and objects
across Europe and its overseas colonies, the connections and
relationships facilitated by the exchange of goods, the importance and
interpretation of the inheritance of goods and objects, and the ways in
which goods brokered relationships between Europe and the wider world in
the period.
The aim is to deepen our understanding of how goods ‘worked’ in a
variety of social, economic and cultural contexts. We know a great deal
about real property and the possession of land, but comparatively little
about goods and chattels and their connections, and how these developed
across a long timeframe. Over the period 1200‒1800 there were great
changes in the type, range and availability of goods, from the finest
items of the elite, the work of craftsmen on an individual basis, to the
manufacture and widespread availability of cheap and utilitarian goods
and equipment.
Customs of ‘possession’ need to be exposed, to show what ownership might
mean, what property might be held by women or children, and what might
be considered inalienable within families. The conference will look to
identify the cultural connections – and how goods and attitudes to them
change culture. It will also consider how goods were transferred,
exchanged and collected, as well as the ways in which objects could be
used to mediate connections and broker relationships between different
people and places.
The Oldenburg Horn, fifteenth century, Danish Royal Collection,
Rosenborg CastleThe Oldenburg Horn
Proposals are invited for single papers and for whole sessions (three
papers). Papers should not exceed 30 minutes. Themes might include:
• The ownership of goods; the law and objects
• Patterns of inheritance for different categories
• The connections of different groups in society to goods, for example,
domestic equipment, jewellery, textiles
• The introduction of new goods, fashions and colours
• The increasing quantities and diversity of goods
• Furnishings for household interiors
• Consumer revolutions (e.g. sugar, colour, fur)
• Vocabularies for describing goods
• Trades and markets for goods
• Processes of collecting and accumulation
• The politics of possession and display
Please send short abstracts (no more than 200 words per paper) by 12
September 2016 to Chris Woolgar ([log in to unmask]).
Conference details at
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/objectsandpossessions2017/
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