Comments on: To Understand a Culture, Study Its Things http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/to-understand-a-culture-study-its-things/ Discover Fri, 08 Feb 2013 08:46:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: San Diego Office Furniture http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/to-understand-a-culture-study-its-things/comment-page-1/#comment-538 San Diego Office Furniture Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:15:53 +0000 http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/?p=6571#comment-538 On an interesting note regarding the "things" a culture makes and uses, I remember going to a museum as a child and seeing a collection of metal objects taken from a bunch of historical sites dating back to the pioneer days. All these pieces of weirdly curved metal had the same basic design. They've apparently found hundreds of them - they were a common household implement. The catch is that historians have literally no idea what this thing was used for. Apparently, there is no mention of this device in any written documents from the time period. It's just something everyone would have known the use for - just like we know what a can opener is today. So, it's important to keep in mind that we interpret the "things" of another culture through the lens of our own. And we don't always have all the information! Daisy McCarty http://www.sandiegocubicles.com/blog/ On an interesting note regarding the
“things” a culture makes and uses, I remember going to a museum as a child and seeing a collection of metal objects taken from a bunch of historical sites dating back to the pioneer days. All these pieces of weirdly curved metal had the same basic design. They’ve apparently found hundreds of them – they were a common household implement. The catch is that historians have literally no idea what this thing was used for. Apparently, there is no mention of this device in any written documents from the time period. It’s just something everyone would have known the use for – just like we know what a can opener is today.

So, it’s important to keep in mind that we interpret the “things” of another culture through the lens of our own. And we don’t always have all the information!

Daisy McCarty
http://www.sandiegocubicles.com/blog/

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