The material life of human beings : artifacts, behavior, and communication / Michael Brian Schiffer with the assistance of Andrea R. Miller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schiffer, Michael B.

Contributor:

Miller, Andrea R.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Material culture.

Human behavior.

Communication and culture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (173 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this ground-breaking work, the distinguished anthropological theorist, Michael Brian Schiffer, presents a profound challenge to the social sciences. Through a broad range of examples, he demonstrates how theories of behavior and communication have too often ignored the fundamental importance of objects in human life. In The Material Life of Human Beings, the author builds upon the premise that the most important feature of human life is not language but the relationships which take place between people and objects. The author shows that artifacts are involved in all modes of human communication - be they visual, auditory or tactile. By creatively folding elements of postmodernist thought into a scientific framework, he creates new concepts and models for understanding and analyzing communication and behavior. Challenging established theories within the social sciences, Michael Brian Schiffer offers a reassessment of the centrality of materiality to everyday life.

Contents:

What is human behavior?

Artifacts and ~interpersonal~ communication

Some first principles

A general theory of communication

Basic communication processes

Explaining performance: a general model of receiver response.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [129]-150) and index.

ISBN:

1-134-63725-X

1-134-63724-1

0-203-03054-0

1-280-33091-0

0-203-25807-X

9786610330911

9780203030547

OCLC:

263595061