Homework Question on Material Culture
- I would like each student to choose one aspect of material culture to research and explore.
- This may require research to be conducted in the Beaton Institute archives, as well as in the library.
- This could be a detailed study of one type of material culture and its role and function in people’s lives. The key to a good research paper is to keep your focus narrow to fully understand the topic you are exploring.
- Make sure to include footnotes or end notes and a bibliography in your final research paper.
- You may use any format for doing your references (MLA, Chicago, etc.); however, please let me what format you are using in your assignment.
Homework Answer on Material Culture
The thesis statement for this research is the roles and functions played by public art as a material culture. In other words, it will investigate how public art helps in shaping views, attitudes and perception of specific people in the society and thus their culture. It has been confirmed that public art is found in public places and buildings for everyone to see and gain insightful experiences.
It is believed that public art has been serving societal needs for a long time and that explains why some pieces of public art are donated by wealthy individuals just to allow the rest of the society to embrace the culture. Public art has been enhancing the spread of cultural knowledge and understanding since they speak to communities in one way or the other.
Roles and functions
Research has found out that public art has been aiding cultural communication in those places they occupy because before an art is made the artist must have a theme in which he wants to convey to the people. As a matter of fact, researcher have pointed out that message is conveyed to the people and the entire surrounding that the art occupies (Tilley Christopher 15). For instance, the public art in front of fire department in Kansas City conveys a culture of people not to associate themselves with evil by neither seeing or hearing evil.