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4 - Improvising Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2009

Andrew Jones
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

What links together purposive human acts is not the presence of the environment as a continuous adversary, but the network of expectations and retained memories which provides the context for the projecting forward of human agency.

(Thomas 1996a, 37)

In Chapter 3, I examined the way in which societies situate themselves in time using material culture. I showed how the materiality of objects is employed to signify qualitative temporal differences. I suggested that these systems of differences are produced and reproduced by the performance of activities which engender an active process of remembrance. I described this process as something akin to literary citation in which the citation of a work both refers to and revitalises its significance. In this chapter, I examine this concept further. I argue that if we accept citation as a useful device for thinking about the relationship between past and present activities, then the concept forces us to rethink how we conceptualise cultural practice more generally. In Chapter 3, I considered the nature of systems of differences synchronically over a single unitary historical period; in this chapter I discuss how the notion of citation helps us think diachronically about the nature of social change. In Julian Thomas's terms, I aim to examine the network of expectations and retained memories which produce the projection forward of human agency.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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  • Improvising Culture
  • Andrew Jones, University of Southampton
  • Book: Memory and Material Culture
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619229.005
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  • Improvising Culture
  • Andrew Jones, University of Southampton
  • Book: Memory and Material Culture
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619229.005
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Improvising Culture
  • Andrew Jones, University of Southampton
  • Book: Memory and Material Culture
  • Online publication: 07 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619229.005
Available formats
×