The Life History of a Handmade Object
write the life history of one particular handmade object. You should draw as much as possible on concrete evidence provided in class readings, lectures, exhibit labels, and/or materials that you locate in the library, online, or by interviewing makers or users, but you may also use your imagination (just make it clear when you are citing known information and when you are extrapolating).
Step One: Select your (folk) object
This may be
o An example of a ceremonial object or pottery on display at an Art Museum
o or something you or your family owns and uses
o or some other object that intrigues you (even something you found online)
- It could be new or old, made by an expert craftsperson or an amateur, etc.
Just be sure that it is handmade and that it exhibits the evidence of transmission andvariation that makes us comfortable calling it an example of folklore.Step Two: Document the object
Make a sketch of the object (it doesn’t have to be high quality; you learn by drawing) or take a photograph to include in your paper. If you can show the object in use in its usual context, that’s especially helpful.
Measure or estimate dimensions, color, texture, other visible features.
Get information about the materials from which the object is made.Step Three: Assemble background information
- Step Four: Write your paper
The questions you should be sure to answer are:
o Describe the object. Even though you will also include an image, describe the item
- so that a person who cannot see it could grasp what it looks and feels like.
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- o Who was the maker? How did they learn to make this kind of object?
o How did the maker obtain (gather, buy, etc.) the necessary materials?
o What was involved in the process of making? How is this object like others of its
type?
o By what means and channels did the object come to you?
o Whatisit(orwoulditbe)liketouseit?
o Whatdoyouthinkwillhappentoitinthefutureifitispreservedorpassed
down to other users?
o What does it mean (especially considering all of the above)?
o Possibly, how might the object make sense of or evaluate its own life trajectory? o To what extent or in what ways does it make a difference that this is a hand-
- made, folk object rather than something commercially mass-produced?
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