Humans depend on things. From the first stone tools to the most advanced smartphones, how we interact with, utilize, and manipulate our environment defines who we are as a species. We are made by our interactions with the things and spaces around us. A “return to things” has recently been advocated within the humanities and social sciences. Disciplines as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, art, cognitive psychology, cultural geography, history, sociology, and beyond, have recognised the importance of material culture to understanding the human experience. It is impossible to separate mind from matter. The things we make, use, trade, keep, and throw away (and how we do so), all underpin individual and communal identity. As sensory creatures, we cannot isolate our behaviour, nor our thinking, from the material world around us. In the end, “matter matters” (Miller 1998) because we wouldn’t be human without the things we make. More recent approaches to material culture recognises that things have agency. Objects can act as repositories of memory, they can influence mood, motivate behaviour, and induce action. They also rely on other things in complex entangled networks of interdependency which draw us in and make it difficult to extricate ourselves.
The “return to things” has yet to make significant progress within the Indian academy – despite the subcontinent being one of the most diverse places on the planet for material culture. With cultural heritage from civilisations spanning millennia, to a vast variety of living craft traditions, to a modern and increasingly consumerist emerging economy, India is a space wherein the production, consumption, reuse, transportation, and discard of material culture is at the heart of the behaviour which ties communities together. Housed within the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, and in keeping with the philosophy of the Liberal Arts tradition, CMCS aims to provide a flexible space wherein these relationships can be investigated across disciplinary boundaries. By advocating for new perspectives forged in the diversity of the subcontinent experience, CMCS hopes to drive material culture studies into new territory.
CMCS aims to engage in activities under three main categories, which all serve to promote a holistic engagement with material culture studies and its potential:
1. Research and investigation
Remaining flexible to broad interdisciplinary and cross-institutional research projects based on approaches such as materiality, network analysis, and related theoretical and analytical methodologies, CMCS will seek to investigate topics such as the interdependencies, networks and boundaries between humans and material culture; different ‘ways of doing’ and ‘ways of knowing’ as communicated through material culture; and relationships with cultural heritage. CMCS will also enable and promote student-driven research and student-participation in the research of affiliated projects.
2. Teaching and pedagogy development
CMCS seeks to improve learning outcomes and deepen student engagement within a variety of JSLH classrooms, including in core foundation courses like History, Expressive Arts, Sociology, and beyond. By leveraging the experiential and active learning pedagogic strategies already practiced within JSLH, CMCS aims to go further by developing interactive workshops incorporating aspects of material culture studies in combination with object-based learning methods.
3. Engagement and innovation
India is home to a vast trove of craft traditions (many of which are small local businesses) and cultural heritage (which is chronically under-resourced). CMCS seeks to engage with material culture to increase the recognition of its importance to communities and directly address a variety of challenges. CMCS aims to be a bridge between regional, national and international interests in developing innovation, sustainable initiatives, and improved awareness of material culture in a rapidly developing economy under increasing environmental pressure and modernisation.
Harsha Chhina Archaeological Project:
The Harsha Chhina Archaeological project (HCAP) is Co-Directed by Dr Christopher Mark Hale and Dr Deepak Nair (R.N.A.R. College, Bihar) and aims to explore a newly identified Early Historical to Medieval settlement mound in the Bari Doab of the Punjab, just outside of Amritsar. Located on a key nexus between the Himalayas, western Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the Punjab was important for both socio-economic development and the movement of goods and people throughout history. However, there is little understanding of the second urbanization process or of the early Historical period in the region more broadly owing to the near complete lack of archaeological investigation or publication of any archaeological assemblage. Initially, HCAP aims to map the mound, survey architectural features, and sample material culture to gain a preliminary understanding of the chronological range of occupation at the site and potential spatial differences across the mound. Such a preliminary survey will lay the foundations for more intensive excavation in the future and allow the site to be registered with the Punjab State Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India, and for it to be granted protected status to stem the immense damage occurring from both erosion and illicit removal of material from the site.
Permit: 2019-2020 Exploration Permit from the Archaeological Survey of India
Funding: 10-lakh Jindal Research Grant
(CMCS Harsha Chhina Archaeological Project Photos)
Object-Based Learning and Experiential Activities:
1.Pottery Production Workshop: The Jatwara Pottery Tradition.
JSLH Class: The Archaeology of the Ancient World, Open Studio I
(Photos 1 – 13)
- Fieldtrip to Jatwara Pottery Village, Sonipat Haryana.
JSLH Class: Expressive Arts
(Photos 14 – 22) - The Social Archaeology of Food: Experiencing Ancient Food Preparation Workshop
JSLH Class: The Archaeology of the Ancient World
(Photo 23) - Thinking Like an Early Archaeologist: Seriation and Typology Workshop.
JSLH Class: History I, The Archaeology of the Ancient World
(Photo 24) - Workshop on Ceramic Classification (Shiv Nadar University), in collaboration with Dr. Deepak Nair (Delhi University), Dr. Aadil Zubair (Ambedkar University), Dr. Jaya Menon (Shiv Nadar University).
JSLH Class: The Archaeology of the Ancient World.
(Photo 25 – 27) - Workshop on Stone Sculpture and Masonry, RAI International School, Sonipat Haryana.
JSLH Class: Open Studio II: Introduction to Visual Arts.
(Photo 28)
