MATERIAL CULTURE THE EMOTION AND THE PLEASURE OF CREATING FEELINGS AND UNDERSTANDING THE OBJECTS We are surrounded

d by things, and we are surrounded by history. Steven Lubar e W. David Kingery

ABSTRACT: This article is mainly a reflection about the relationship between the emotions and the material production, artistic or workmanship. Making links between mental, creative and constructive human activity, we try to understand how objects, artifacts or utensils can be instruments of preservation, differentiation and socio cultural affirmation. In spite of this, the article comes up with the idea about the capacity of the objects to go beyond their time and physical space frontiers. In one way or another, the objects, the time and the space, mix up, and interconnect among themselves. Key Words: Material Culture, objects/sensorial activity; objects/emotional activity; objects/construction and preservation of the identities Many questions have been making about objects over measure in our life. Are they like a reservoir of our personal and collective memories? What relationship do we have with our own objects? Can we define or identify an emotional moment when an artisan builds a certain piece? Are the objects the mediators in human relationships? In what way are the objects a demonstration of our identities? Hundreds of questions could be make about the objects role in the human kind evolutive long walk. As Steven Lubar and W. David Kingery quote, surrounding by objects, we are definitely, surrounding by History and by histories. The

artifacts have the capacity to go beyond the time and the distance. They go beyond the time, because they persist beyond their epoch. They win distances, because they travel beyond their own frontiers. Since long time ago, the Man has a deep relationship with the utensils and the objects that he builds and rebuilds, in order to please his basic needs. Any objecteven the simplest one-, is the result of the Human intellectual and creative work. The objects have been working through the years in many societies, like elements of the individuals sociabilization and social differentiation. There is a symbolic meaning for each one of those. The artifacts can play a utilitarian role, but almost also have some ideological function related to the society's social organization, and may have some ideological function related to the society's ideology. (Lubar e Kingery, 1993: XVI) The objects belong also, to the sacred and profane world. They play such an important role in our life, that some authors defend; the destruction of an object can be at same time, the destruction of a culture memory. Anna Ostrowska says, there is obvious the objects power in the mobilization of the memory. Due to that, there are close analogies () between personal objects and the changing of the self. While having an object for a long time can give us a feeling of permanency and continuity of life, destroying it (often) purposely) can break the coherence of our self-definition or even serve to change a part of our identity. (Ostrowska, picked up online in July 2000) So, is it important to know what is the function of the material culture? What benefits bring these studies to the humankind? Jules David Prown says the purpose of the material culture study is (...) the study of material to understand culture, to discover beliefs - the values, ideas, attitudes, and assumptions - of a particular community or society at a given time. (Prown, 1993:1).

The Culture is itself, always connected to the human mental activity. The Culture is everything we receive, inherit, and recreate in our society. The Culture, is in fact, (...) everything the Man produces with the purpose to use in his daily life, in a way to acquire from his surroundings everything he needs. (Nogueira, 2000:192) Discovering the objects is to understand the society that recreate1 them, is in fact, a very rich and grateful experience. The object is color, texture, raw material, shape and function. The object is all of this, plus, history, cultural context, emotion, sensorial experience and body talk. However, other perspective can face the Material Culture: Only the objects go beyond the time and the space. Only them can cross that frontier. A materiality recognized by the permanence and not by the immobility. The objects are known by their travel characteristics. They move considerably in all societies and communities, and because of this, the same object can get as much meanings as the different places they move. The reality is they are recognized by their immortality. Marcel Maget says, the objects are the most durable witnesses (...) within the Culture. From all past civilizations, thats all we have. (1962:15). The author reinforces, here, the objects characteristics of resistance, durability and timelessness, very different from other human creations. Like Maget, David Prown wrote, artifacts constitute the only class of historical events that occurred in the past but survive into the present. They can be re-

The conception, the invention and the authenticity of the objects is much more complex than it seems at first sight. Its quite difficult to prove which cultural elements are, or are not authentic when I mention authentic, I mean the origin of the object-. In my opinion, nothing is invented anymore, but everything is reinvented and mixable. To reinvent something, means to give life to an object with a previous existence. The necessity of the nowadays societies to get almost desperately some of their traditions, comes up with some cultural recreations, trying to be closest to the original object, for instance. The Globalization is partially responsible for this phenomena of the self-getting of our societies. To the standard economical and social patterns of our life, the societies have been responding through their cultural diversifications. We are different, because our histories, social and cultural tracks are different, too. The difference and the humankind cultural richness are within its diversity and syncretism.

experienced; they are authentic, primary historical material available for firsthand study. Artifacts are historical evidence (Prown, 1993:3) However, in spite of the objects have the timelessness characteristic, they belong to a certain time and they delimit a certain epoch. Through their study, we can delineate a community history, but we can go far than that, and delimit also, the profile of the trade who produces the object, and even the profile of the artisan responsible for that creation. Color, materials, textures, shapes and decorative motifs, are assorted of elements of a certain time. By the way, Henry Glassie says, (...) Like a story, an artifact is a text, a display of form and a vehicle for meaning. (Glassie: 1999,46). By this point of view, the objects are storytellers; they are a medium to cultural and emotional transmission. According with this, can we see the material side of our society, by the emotions perspective? Yes, we can. However, the next quoting can make us to understand even better this reality: The hands were moving in the clay and they were slow and steady. (...) Slowly, the clay started to get shapes. (...) - Why these animals? - Because, I dream many times this way. Then, I make the dreams in the clay. (Bastos, 1988:103) When the artisan, thinks, builds or rebuilds objects, he works during all this constructive process at the emotions level. Like the quote above shows, the artisan, many times dreams with a particular piece, and soon as he awakes, he transfers this dream to a paper, wood, clay or any other raw-material. At this very moment, his dream comes to life. During all this process, the artisan faces something that is not exterior to him. Those moments are very particular, and I define them, like a lonely and an inner experience, that the others not directly involved in this process, only can see it, understand it and appreciate it, when they face the artistic object produced. And I say artistic, because even the main

purpose of the artifact would be its functionally, there is always an aesthetic and ornamental side in it. The object plays with the emotions of the artisan and the emotions of the buyers. When we buy an artifact, beyond its functional feature, we want simultaneously a beautiful piece. At this moment, theres an emotional continuity started inside2 the artisan, goes through his workroom and, is extended to the buyer living area. This emotional aspect can be faced also, by the way as if the artisan gives himself to his creations. The creative instant is a surrender and a fight moment, sometimes painful and disappointedly. Glassie states that things are works of art when the act is committed, devoted, when people transfer themselves completely into their works that they stand as accomplishments of human possibility. (1999:41). Referring David Prown again, its curious his interpretation of the emotional side of the artifacts. He alleges, by undertaking cultural interpretation through artifacts, we engage the other culture in the first instance not with our minds, (), but with our senses. Figuratively speaking, we put ourselves inside the bodies of the individuals who made or used these objects; we see with their eyes and touch with their hands. (1993:17). The most exciting here is, more important than the time contact through our minds, is the sensorial contact through the times. The sensorial experience is very strong in us. Our world is replete of sensations and we live and survive in it, through our sensorial perceptions. To touch, to look, to smell, to listen and to taste, are unconscious movements placed in us, everytime we touch an object. The sensatory system, in spite of physical sensations capture, is also, a way of cultural transmission. The senses carry several cultural dimensions, according with the societies we analyze. In the Occidental world is obvious the overemphasis given to the visual sense. Constance Classen, an expert in Sense Anthropology, tell the vision started to walk away from the other senses, at the
The hand made production is mainly a creative, cognitive and mental act. After this project comes up in the artisan mind, he will transfer it to any raw material in a way to make it real. Touch, feeling the texture, feeling the shapes, look the colors and feel at same time the smell of the material itself, is specially a sensorial experience.
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18th Century, because of the Science improvement. The author says also during the 19th Century, the Darwinists and Freudian theories, faced the sight, like the symbol of civilization, developing and progress. This is the reason why the sight got in advance in the sensory system. Usually, the technological undeveloped societies were closer to the scent, touch and taste. The craftsman relationship - as a producer with the artifacts he produces, is distinguished mainly by his hands. The hand in this situation has a crucial role because, through the gesture, it creates and gives shape and aesthetics to the objects. The hand, which builds, transforms, enlarges and reduces. The hand can be as well, soft or hard. Through the hands gesture, our sensations and emotions get some shapes. The hand is, in this context, mind and soul. Like the hands, also the sight has an important function in all the trade jobs. Visiting a pottery in Lisbon, during the 80s decade, Baptista Bastos, emphasizes the relationship among hands and eyes in the

Image 1 One of the phases of a barrel repair

Pottery work, and he wrote, nine hours of daily work, a concentration that cannot be diluted in any mistake (). Eyes and hands, hands and eyes. (1988:112)

In addition, we cannot forget the touchable experience from who likes a certain object. The Portuguese people use to say; sometimes we have our eyes in our hands. In fact, we do not want to see with our hands, we want to feel the object, and thats the reason how the touch is so resistless, and sometimes out of control, not
Image 2 Artisan building a grape-gathering wicker basket
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only with the children, but also, with the adults. The touchable emotions are different from the visual emotions. The touch is always more powerful than the sight. As a matter of fact, we only identify, sensitize, love or hate an object, at the moment we interact in a sensorial way with it. Sensation is mainly emotion. The objects and artifacts are stimulus to our emotions. Our emotions get form and act, when called by something internal or external to us. In the artisan example, these stimulus start during the mental process of a projects conception, and at the buyers or users side, the emotions and reactions, only show up when the utensil, object or artifact already exist. (...) The emotions never depend exclusively the way like the world is made, because (...), they make that particular world. (Manghi, 1999:5). Nevertheless, in this emotional process, between the craftsman and public, its not a discontinuous process, I mean, this process cannot be defined like: now, feels the artisan and after would feel the craft buyer. The emotions are in all of us at same time, and as Srgio Manghi says, the emotional signals, are not only an individuals
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internal

processes

(...).

Some

times,

they

are

indicators

The author of the image is the anthropologist Anglica Conceio, responsible for a research in the late 90s, about the wicker grape-gathering baskets at the Azambuja municipality, in the Center of Portugal.

configurations of the individual himself. (...). The emotions are first in me, and by the way in us. The emotions are in me and in us. (ibid) On the one hand, the objects play with the time, because they can be transmitted generation to generation, and the emotional feature transcends the time frontier. On the other hand, the objects play with the distance, because they move not only among members of a certain community, but at same time, among exterior members of the original community. The Tourism is one of the best validations of this phenomenon. Rosa Ramalho, one of the most famous Portuguese ceramists, confessed one day to the journalist Baptista Bastos, we have to work hard to attend our orders (...). The tourism gives us good money. The tourism is one of the best things created in our Portugal. (Bastos, 1988:107) The artifacts, are in fact travel elements, and carry with them the artisans, the trades, the communities and their original countries, to several other places. However, the artifacts do not define only a community, a person or a country. The same artifact, object or trade, can be also a distinguish element of more than one region inside or outside of the same physical boundaries. These situations can be explained, by the way like the same artifacts, get different shapes and functions according with the places they are. Through the cultural diffusion, the same object can get several functions, colors, shapes and even symbolic meanings, in different places. There is a re-invention or an innovation, everytime these artifacts are disseminated region-to-region or culture-to-culture. In all these readjust processes the objects get new features. Moreover, the emotions they give to the producers or to the buyers, are also, different. Many times, these emotions are associated to a symbolic idea or to a social status, according with the importance of a certain object in the society that uses it. Can we say the objects or the traditional trades distinguish the identity or identities4 of a community?
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Here, I highlight the word identity, because I support the idea, we must be careful with the use of it. As the culture is not anymore, create but recreate, because the cultural phenomena are mainly a result of cultural and changing diffusion, with our identity is the same. The contacts, the miscegenation and the

Yes, they do. The explanation is very simple: the object is always a result of who produces it, and gives it a certain social function. By the shape, texture, color, function and ornament characteristics, we can identify the society, which the object belongs. Regardless, with the globalization and the homogenization of the societies, the only way to make the difference is through the Culture; and the artifacts have an important role on this matter. Summing up, the emotions conduct the life of all of us, and in the cultural production, they are a permanent presence. The social memory is the closet of our acquisitions and cultural experiences. The Material Culture, is nothing more than a never ending number of shelves of that closet, with the doors slightly open, allowing who arrives, recreating, reinventing, adding and changing. The human relationship with the objects and/or artifacts is an unquestionable reality. We cannot live without them. The object is an element of identification of groups and communities, and with them we have an affinity as close as we have with the other human beings we deal everyday. The hands are the soul and they give shape to the object, but are in the artisans mind everything starts. During all objects creative and producing process, the emotions are always present, and that emotionality is simultaneously experienced and felt by the persons that purchase or simply admire the artifact. In a general way, the object interferes with our sensorial perceptions, indeed, with our basic instincts. For all of this, I really advice to each one of us, look, touch, smell and listen the material production that surrounds us and builds our world.

syncretism, are the origin of our identities, declining of the identity. All of us are a combination of several values, beliefs and traditions that in a certain time get together and, after, are change, because of the world interaction of nowadays.

Like I said before, the objects are the immortality of our histories, they are the immortality of our socio-cultural experiences and besides that, they explain and justify the way of being in society of each person.

Sandra Nogueira

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BIBLIOGRAPHY BASTOS, Baptista. 1988. As Palavras dos Outros, Coleco Dias de Prosa, 3 Edio, Lisboa, Edio O Jornal BENEDICT, Ruth. No date. Padres de Cultura, Coleco Vida e Cultura, n 58, Lisboa, Edio Livros do Brasil CLASSEN, Constance; HOWES, David; SYNNOTT, Anthony. 1994. Aroma- the culture history of smell, N. York, Routledge

CMARA MUNICIPAL DE AZAMBUJA. 2001. A Gastronomia na Antropologia Sensorial in A Matana do Porco o sabor da festa, exhibition catalogue, included in the exhibition cicle Tecnologias Tradicionais Portuguesas, written by Sandra Nogueira, Azambuja, p. 21,22 GARCIA, Pedro Gomez. 2000 2001 GLASSIE, Henry. 1999 Material Culture, Bloomington, Indiana University Press . Globalizacin Cultural, Identidad y Sentido de la Vida, article online at http://www.ugr.es/~pwlac/G16_02Pedro_Gomez_Garcia.html, pick up in January

LUBAR, Steven; KINGERY, W. David. 1993 HISTORY from THINGS: Essays on Material Culture, Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press

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MAGET, Marcel. 1962 . Guide DEtude Directe Des Comportements Culturels, Paris, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique MANGHI, Sergio. 1999. Gazeta Siento, luego podramos Para una teora social de las emociones, in de Antropologia, n. 15, article available online at

http://www.ugr.es/~pwlac/G15_06Sergio_Manghi.html, picked up in May. 2002 MILLER, Daniel. 1998. Why Some Things Matter, article online at http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/miller.html, picked up in August 2001 NOGUEIRA, Sandra. 2001. Ofcios Tradicionais como Vertente do Turismo Cultural, in I Congresso Virtual Turismo y Cultura, Cidade Virtual de Antropologia y Arqueologia, Argentina, article online at http://www.naya.com.ar NOGUEIRA, Sandra. 2000 . A Tanoaria no Concelho do Cartaxo in Programa Nacional de Bolsas de Investigao para Jovens Historiadores e Antroplogos, volume III, 3 Edio, Lisboa/Porto, Edio da Fundao da Juventude, 1996/97, pg. 184 a 293 OSTROWSKA, Anna. 2000 . Our Lady in Constant Help Uses of Material, article online at http://www.ub.es/easa/42w.html, picked up in January 2001 PROWN, Jules David. 1993 . The Truth of Material Culture: History or Fiction? in HISTORY from THINGS: Essays on Material Culture, Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 1 to 17.

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