Digging through the Past | thingsweleavebehind

What is a cultural artifact?

When we look at the words individually, we can break down the idea of a cultural artifact into parts. Culture, in essence, is the way things are done in a certain region by a specific group of people. Things that make up culture include the way we dress, the things we eat, and the music that we listen to. An artifact is any object that is made by humans. Some examples of artifacts are statues, paintings, tools and money. A cultural artifact then is any object made by a particular group of people at any given moment in history.

Oftentimes when we think of cultural artifacts, we call to mind museum curated exhibits, filled with objects dug up by archeologists or collected by various people. When we look at these objects, our understanding of them is quite detached, because while we can read the tags and labels provided by the museum and gain a certain understanding of where the object comes from and how it was used, we cannot possibly understand what it really meant to those people. While we may still have the object, the story that goes along with that object--the person it belonged to, the sentiments they held, are lost in the wake of their passing.

Today, we are going to dig through the past and imagine the stories that go along with these objects.

First, I'd like each of you to look at the objects pictured below and choose one that speaks to you in some way.

Once you have chosen an image that speaks to you, I'd like you to take out a piece of notebook paper and a writing utensil
Next, I'd like you to write a story about the object, which you will then share with the class. You can write in paragraph form, or you can simply write notes which you can refer to when you talk about the object, but regardless of how you choose to write it, I'd like for you to simply let your imagination take over! In order to help you through this process, I've listed some questions which you can answer through your writing. You can include them all in your story, or ignore them all, it's up to you.
- Who owns this object?
  - are they young or old?
  - are they wealthy or poor?
  - are they a man or a woman?
- How did they recieve this object?
  - did they make it themselves?
  - was it a gift?
  - was it stolen?
- What time period is it from?
  - is it really old or something that was made recently?
- What area of the world is it from?
  - is it from our area or from a place really far away?
- How did the person feel about the object?
  - was it something cherished?
  - was it something that they felt indifferently toward, like a commonplace object?
- What did they do with the object?
  - Did they look at it?
  - did they use it in everyday life?
  - was it a piece of art?
Take fifteen minutes to come up with your story, once you have, gather together as a class, or in groups and give a brief synopsis of your story

So what does all this mean?

All of these objects were taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and while they come from all over the world and carry with them unique stories, without any of that information provided, the stories that we come up with about them are based on our own experiences and knowlege. When someone sees the chess set for example, they recognize it as a chess set because they themselves may have played the game, or perhaps you didn't recognize it as a chess set at all but as some strange game from long ago. Whichever the case, our experiences and personal stories play a huge part in how we read these objects.