An innovative material culture perspective on migration research.
Material Culture and (Forced) Migration argues that materiality is a fundamental dimension of migration. People take things with them, or they lose, find, and engage things along the way. Movements themselves are framed by objects such as borders, passports, tents, camp infrastructures, boats, and mobile phones. This volume brings together chapters on a broad range of movements—from forced migration and displacement to retirement migration. What ties the chapters together is their perspective of material culture.
Centering on four interconnected themes—temporality and materiality, methods of object-based migration research, the affective capacities of objects, and the engagement of things in place-making practices—the volume provides a material culture perspective for migration scholars around the globe, from a wide range of disciplines. The chapters’ focus on everyday objects and practices will appeal to all those interested in the tangible experiences of migration.
About the Author
Friedemann Yi-Neumann is a research fellow at University of Göttingen.
Andrea Lauser is professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Georg-August-University, Göttingen.
Antonie Fuhse is a scientific coordinator for the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Göttingen.
Peter J. Bräunlein holds an extracurricular professorship in the study of religion from the University of Bremen.
Praise For…
This volume offers an original and significant contribution to the discipline of social anthropology at large, and to the burgeoning field of migration studies, as well as to the most intriguing advancement in the study of material culture. Integrating this open-ended anthropological discourse with methods and reflections emergent from archaeology and curatorial studies, the volume breaks new ground in terms of multi-disciplinarity, while raising careful considerations with regard to the ethics of doing research with people affected by (forced) migration. — Sara Bonfanti, University of Trento
