Skip to main content

Search from vocabulary

Content language

Concept information

Preferred term

history of material culture  

Definition

  • Human activities with objects over the past 2.5 million years have had a significant impact on human cognitive, linguistic, and social configurations. Although other animals, including mammals and birds, employ simple tools to achieve certain tasks (such as using sticks to extract termites from mounds), no other animal makes composite objects or objects that are creatively abstracted from natural forms to produce completely invented shapes and designs. [Source: Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage; Material Culture, History of]

Broader concept

Belongs to group

URI

https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/history_of_material_culture

Download this concept: