Stuff

by Daniel Miller

Things make us just as much as we make things. And yet, unlike the study of languages or places, there is no discipline devoted to the study of material things. This book shows why it is time to acknowledge and confront this neglect and how much we can learn from focusing our attention on stuff.The book opens with a critique of the concept of superficiality as applied to clothing. It presents the theories that are required to understand the way we are created by material as well as social relations. It takes us inside the very private worlds of our home possessions and our processes of accommodating. It considers issues of materiality in relation to the media, as well as the implications of such an approach in relation, for example, to poverty. Finally, the book considers objects which we use to define what it is to be alive and how we use objects to cope with death. Based on more than thirty years of research in the Caribbean, India, London and elsewhere, Stuff is nothing less than a manifesto for the study of material culture and a new way of looking at the objects that surround us and make up so much of our social and personal life.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Sociology, Material Culture, History, Cultural, Grad School

184 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at UCL, author/editor of 37 books including Tales from Facebook, Digital Anthropology (Ed. with H. Horst), The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach (with D. Slater), Webcam (with J. Sinanan), The Comfort of Things, A Theory of Shopping, and Stuff.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miller seems to spend more time advocating for material culture studies in this book than he does actually performing material cultural analysis. When he does the former, I found his attempts to situate the work and philosophy of material culturists useful. He nicely distinguishes his m.o. from that of both Bourdieu and Latour, for example, explaining that he isn't so much advocating for a theory of objects and people commingling side-by-side, but rather a more determinist stance wherein objects actually do work to influence the behaviors and beliefs of people. Miller is also fiercely nonjudgmental of materialist tendencies of contemporary society, never once suggesting the importance of fashion might be frivolous or the love of fancy cars might be misguided. In fact, in what little analysis of actual material culture he does, it seems that Miller finds as much significance in the sorts of jeans Londoners wear as the types of clay pots Trobriand Islanders have molded for generations. While I'm not suggesting I disagree regarding the latter, I did feel that Miller's attempt to whole-heartedly embrace all sorts of stuff as materially (and, thereby, culturally) significant was overdone at points. Funnily, at other moments, I was left with the opposite reaction: that his analysis of why particular objects carry significance wasn't thorough enough to be convincing. In the end, it seems that Miller justifies his methodology well, but in eschewing the more social constructivist stance of Latour or the taste-influenced analysis of Bourdieu, he ends up stopping short of really considering just what significance objects have for users (or what inherent meaning they might have on their own). Just saying stuff matters, which emerges as the essential message of this book, isn't all that interesting. Miller still has some way to come before he answers why.

[Maria Fernanda Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Trecos, Troços e Coisas" meio que se tornou minha "leitura cobertorzinho" nas Ciências Sociais - como a criança que se volta para seu cobertorzinho de estimação quando se sente intimidada, tenho certeza que vou voltar para esse livro quando estiver lendo Cuche e não estiver entendo nada. Daniel Miller é quase uma mãe para o leitor - ele pega conceitos complicados - alguns até mesmo indecifráveis - e os transporta para o mundo das pessoais normais. Por exemplo: até ler esse livro, eu tinha certeza que só ia conseguir entender realmente o que era alienação dentro da Teoria Marxisista quando eu crescesse (ou atingisse uma nova dimensão intelectual mais elevada) mas o Daniel Miller foi lá e fez essa mão para mim.

Mais do que apresentar as teorias complicadas de um modo que até gente muito idiota consegue entender, Daniel Miller meio que resume a maioria dos debates atuais sobre Cultura Material, fazendo assim uma boa apresentação do tema para quem não é da área. Portanto, se você tiver que ler apenas um livro sobre o tema, leia este. Se você tiver tempo/interesse para ler outras coisas, também recomendo que você comece por esse livro, e aí vá seguindo as varias indicações que ele vai dando ao longo texto (aliás, quem diria que a Antropologia poderia ser assim tão interessante?).

Mesmo as pessoas que já tem alguma familiaridade com o tema - é o meu caso, pois trabalhei com cultura material no meu TCC - vão achar esse livro interessante, pois Daniel Miller traz algumas perspectivas novas. Eu achei particularmente interessante a maneira como ele defende que as roupas SÃO as pessoas, e não simplesmente as representam (como a maioria dos autores que eu li até hoje defendem). A maneira como a casa em que vive pode influenciar a vida de alguém também é bem instigante.

Enfim, recomendo esse livro a todo mundo que queira entender um pouco mais sobre os relacionamentos humanos (inclusive sobre coisas que todos nós fazemos sem pensar), pois, como Daniel Miller mesmo diz, "a análise da cultura material é uma via indireta para compreender as pessoas e os relacionamentos".

[Nina Knez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty clear and general view about how we buy too much things, that dont need them and store them in big houses in rooms we do not use.

[Ella]

banger je veux lire la suite qui aborde les conséquences de la culture matérielle (sur l'environnement et nanani nanana)

[Julia Hendon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book summarizes and reflects on Miller's precious research and publications. It is a useful for giving the reader a summing up of his interests. The sections discussing Miller's more theoretical work on, for example, objects as agents, provide a nice overview of his ideas. As is often the case, the author has become more fluent in explaining some very complex ideas. The sections on his ethnographic research are less satisfying. The reader is asked to accept the conclusions without much discussion of the rich ethnographic details found in his earlier work. Readers unfamiliar with those earlier accounts may find the treatment rather distanced.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daniel Miller is a smart, contentious guy, and I like the way he thinks and argues. That said, not all of this is at the same level of brilliance.

[Vitor Chuairi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The less phylosophical chapters are much more interesting, but the book is a great look, different from the more traditional "materialism sucks" book that are out there...

[Tracy Brower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some totally new ways to look at materiality, materialism, and a material culture.

[Alicia]

This sounds like a version of Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik, which I freaking loved.

[sarai · Rating 4 out of 5]

yeah i understand why my material culture professor decided to unassign this book. this is not for public history students who never picked up on the fact that the legitimacy of material culture was still being challenged in anthropology (????) and are also too stupid for philosophy (i'm public history students)

the section on phones and the internet is SO 2010. wild to read in 2024.

all that being said. idk i had a good time and that's a pretty decent review for an academic monograph out of my field lol

[M J Harrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid work.

I'm new to Miller and have found him very informative. This is book is a good introduction to the concepts of social anthropology, in regards to our relationship with material objects.

[Robert Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great introduction to the study of material culture, but a bit self-indulgent.

[Nicklas Karlsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very broadening for me. A solid case for the importance of materiality.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central argument of this book is a paradox: that the best way to understand, convey and appreciate our humanity is through attention to our fundamental materiality.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 15, loc. 221-222

The leitmotif of this book is a challenge to our common-sense opposition between the person and the thing, the animate and inanimate, the subject and the object.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 16, loc. 233-234

My starting point is that we too are stuff, and our use and identification with material culture provides a capacity for enhancing, just as much as for submerging, our humanity. My hope and intention is that this book will demonstrate how and why a more profound appreciation of things will lead to a more profound appreciation of persons.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 17, loc. 261-264

The first chapter on clothing is a demolition of the most common academic and popular view of stuff – the idea that objects signify or represent us and that they are principally signs or symbols that stand for persons. Instead, I argue that in many respects stuff actually creates us in the first place. More specifically, I demonstrate why clothing is not superficial.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 25, loc. 370-373

The second chapter presents theories of material culture. Starting with a theory of objects per se, it moves steadily upwards to the more rarefied theory of objectification and thence to a plane of transcendence where we gain a perspective from which we can no longer distinguish subjects from objects. It then examines the consequences of our various beliefs about the properties of materiality itself.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 25, loc. 373-377

The third chapter takes these neat and clean abstract theories and drags them back down to the messy world of application in its consideration of our relationship with our homes and houses. It literally domesticates such theories through examining the process of ‘accommodating’, and reveals how such theories, when applied to specifics, have to incorporate wider factors such as the impact of governments, the history of styles, international migration, and the power and agency that lies in the houses themselves.

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 25, loc. 377-381

The fourth chapter examines the ambiguous materiality of media and communication. Stuff is not necessarily a thing we can hold or touch. This chapter also takes responsibility for issues not previously addressed, but which emerge in applied anthropology. What can and should we do with the knowledge and understanding gained by material culture studies, when it comes to the welfare of populations? How can we hope to improve their conditions and respect their aspirations while considering the negative impact of their desires?

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 25, loc. 382-387

Finally, in the fifth chapter, we consider stuff as the matter of life and death; that which brings us into the world and that which helps us part from the world. In this final chapter I take what was introduced theoretically as the way objects construct subjects, and show how this is true for the everyday understanding of what it means to be human. Notes

Daniel Miller, Stuff, pg. 26, loc. 387-391

[Kara Donnelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really excellent book in which Miller summarizes much of his work to date. The book's central argument is that humans and stuff dialectically construct each other through processes of objectification... but Miller explains this all in a manner that is easily graspable and highly entertaining. I'm very much looking forward to reading the sequel, Consumption and Its Consequences (though I'll have to wait until that comes through interlibrary loan since the Notre Dame library -- gasp! -- does not own a copy!).

[Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice exploration of how we make things, but also how things shape us.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent distillation of Miller's previous works and explained in a slightly less intense way. The best/easiest definition of Hegel that I've ever read occurs briefly in Chapter 2.

[Mer Less · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess, I was expecting much more theory oriented academic text book.

[Hannah]

Shout out to required reading for school