Lemonnier Mundane Objects

221 edited by Penny Jones

A r c h a e o l o g i c a l R e v i e w f r o m C a m b r i d g e | 2 8 . 2 | 2 0 1 3 | 1 9 5 2 2 5

Mundane Objects: Materiality and Non-verbal CommunicationBy Pierre Lemonnier

2012. Walnut Creek: Let Coast PressHbk. 203pp. 589 B/w illus.ISBN: 978-1-61132-056-5

Reviewed by Lucy ShipleyDepartment of Archaeology, University of Southampton.

Following the seminal work of Kopytof (1986) and Gell (1998), archaeologists have become increasingly familiar with approaches to material culture which are focused on the social role of seemingly

everyday objects. Archaeological expressions of this interest in quotidian material culture have ranged from biographical approaches (Gosden and Marshall 1999) to the use of actor network theory (Knappett 2005) and indigenous cosmologies (Alberti and Marshall 2009), and are central to the developing new pragmatism in archaeological theory (Preucel and Mrozowski 2010). hrough these diverse methodologies, archaeologists are increasingly recognizing that humans and objects are relentlessly entangled in one another in complex and variable ways.

Mundane Objects: Materiality and Non-verbal Communication shares the concern of these archaeological approaches to everyday objects, and will be of great interest to those working in material culture studies as well as archaeologists interested in agency. Lemonnier frames this anthropological work in light of his own appreciation of approaches to objects developed from the same foundational texts cited above. Yet he is simultaneously frustrated by the results of such analytical approaches, arguing that they minimize the physical materiality of objects and distract from their speciic, non-verbal relationship with the body. Lemonnier suggests that, in contrast, traditional ethnographic analysis can look into the black box of agency (page 20) and explore how seemingly mundane objects physically intervene in and shape human lives. With this aim in mind, he presents ive case studies using this approach, which each consider a single type of object and its particular relationship with the humans who make and use it.

Each case study is the subject of a single chapter. Four are drawn from ieldwork undertaken with Anga communities in Papua New Guinea,

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while one is developed from the authors experiences of Frenchmen of his own generation. hese diverse contexts allow Lemonnier to draw out at length the similar manifestation of agency for everyday objects in contrasting communities, yet it could be argued that this particular ratio of case studies slightly unbalances the structure of the worka further example from a French context would have been welcome. However, the biographical organisation of the workbeginning with Lemonniers observations on his irst experience of anthropological ieldwork, and ending with his most recent work on his own cultureforms an efective spine to the book. his structure, when combined with Lemonniers candid admissions of his earlier, now altered convictions, results in the reader becoming a witness to the authors personal development.

Once the journey through the ive case studies is completed, Lemonnier uses the results of his analyses in two further chapters. hese aim to refashion object agency around his central concept of resonance, which is then applied to a variety of material culture. he inal chapter considers the impact of globalisation on relationships with objects in Melanesia, and in this, Lemonnier hypothesises the continuing relevance of seemingly mundane objects to human experience.

he irst case study, discussed in Chapter One, focuses on perhaps the most ordinary of the ive objects, the Baruya garden fence. Lemonnier observes that such fences are far larger and more substantial than required for their role of protecting gardens from marauding pigs. He uses his original analysis of the process of building these fences to develop what he terms new indings for old data (page 36). hese new indings present his current view of the fence as a physical manifestation of Baruya values, particularly co-operative communal labour, which is organized through structured kinship relations.

he issue of relationships between men and women comes to the fore in the second case study, which focuses on Ankave eel traps (Chapter Two). hese traps, used to catch eels which are then distributed as funerary gits to mourners, are explicitly connected to mythologies of masculinity and the origins of the penis. Lemonnier argues that these myths are made visible during the rituals which prepare and test the traps, to ensure that their spring mechanisms are functioning. he physical form of the trap demands the contribution of both men and women to its physical and spiritual creation to ensure its success. Without the combination of functional and mythological eicacy, the trap will fail to produce eels: Lemonnier thus argues that this seemingly simple object is intensely bound up in complex



stories and layers of meaning.

Chapter hree further develops this argument about the entangled nature of misleadingly mundane artefacts (page 63) through the analysis of Ankave drums. While the drums themselves appear simple, they are speciically formed to relect Ankave world-views and to negotiate the transition of the dead during secondary funerals. he hourglass shape draws in spirits, which are then expelled through the opposite end of the drum. he contours of the instrument are thus not only designed to produce sound, but also to maintain particular relationships between humans and spirits.

In Chapter Four, an even more explicitly ritual examplethat of sacred Angka ritual pouchesis used to make much the same argument. hese bundles and their contents are used to focus and concentrate memories of the Angka past that are central to male initiation rituals. he magical pouches form connections with ancestral powers, but more importantly form a cluster of thoughts, memories and meanings which are used to focus participants on their ceremonial duties (page 88).

he two objects described in Chapters hree and Four, drum and ritual pouch, are forceful reminders of the potential of seemingly everyday artefacts to serve as important foci for ritual activity. However, their obvious role as part of ritual events suggests that both drum and pouch are not actually mundane objects at all. An analysis of more everyday thingspots, cooking implements or toolswould have been a better it with the stated aims and ideals of the book.

he inal case study, presented in Chapter Five, falls somewhat into the same trap, yet forms an intriguing comparison with the increasingly ceremonial objects of the previous chapters. Lemonnier uses the example of model cars from the mid-twentieth century to explore their use as sites of memory and mythology for (predominantly male) collectors in France. he sentimental power which such model cars have for collectors results in the cars prompting the recall of speciic races and drivers, enshrining them as sites of memory and nostalgia. However, as with the ritual objects from Lemonniers work in Melanesia, I would argue that the model cars are perhaps not as mundane as he suggests. Rather, the cars are objects which were used once only in the context of play, and which have become ritual, fetishised things in their second incarnation as collectible items.

From these ive case studies, Lemonnier builds his argument that all objects have the potential to act as what he terms perissological resonators

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(page 133), materials imbued with layers of meaning. his term is used to incorporate both parts of his underlying analysis of the role and power of objects as non-verbal communicators. As resonators, Lemonnier argues that objects form hubs of countless variations of memories, mythologies and meanings, which they then express outwards to impact upon those who encounter them. hese variable messages are bounded in the physicality of the object itself, and are also protected by their multiplicity, which ensures that the role of such objects is resistant to change.

his point about the physicality of objects preserving the resonances they carry is particularly relevant to the archaeologist in terms of thinking about changes in the form and design of artefacts. Speciically, the terminology of resonance provides a new way of characterising the multiple layers of human relationships which are incorporated into material culture. In the same way that the concept of palimpsest allows for the analysis of a series of past human actions inscribed on a landscape, Lemonniers resonance provides an opportunity to explore objects as multi-faceted sites imbued with layers of meaning and power. he range and variety of possible impacts and audiences associated with the resonance of the garden fence and eel trap act as a spur to the archaeologist, reminding the reader that such functional, everyday things may be as meaningful as highly ritualized objects, acting as sites of personal and communal memories.

hese arguments explain Lemonniers choice of case studies, all of which involve objects which are obvious sites for such complex relationships between humans and things. Drums, pouches and toy cars are all imbued with resonating agency for the individuals who encounter them. However, I suggest that this is also the case for other objects encountered on a daily basis which are not explicitly used in ritual activities. Lemonniers choice not to focus upon such objects, and to prioritize more obviously ritualized material culture, results in an elision of the stated central concern of the book: the agency and non-verbal communication of everyday objects.

Further, Lemonniers aim to use ethnographic observation to further explore the power of things was ambitious. his was intended to develop new approaches to everyday objects, and to emphatically recognize the importance of object agency. Yet by continuing to frame that agency in terms of intangible meanings bound up in ritual behaviour, Lemonnier falls into the same pattern of analysis he himself critiquesplacing too much focus on the non-physical relationship between people and things. Indeed, archaeological explorations of object agency, which are oten explicitly focused upon connections between bodies and material culture, would have



informed and strengthened Lemonniers argument signiicantly. While this book is excellent as a scholarly and entertaining account of the relations of ive particular types of object with people, many readers may thus ind the theoretical conclusions somewhat unsatisfying. It is to be hoped that this will not prevent archaeologists from taking on and engaging with both the concept of resonance and these ive thought-provoking case studies.

References

Alberti, B. and Marshall, Y.M. 2009. Animating archaeology: Local theories and conceptually open-ended methodologies. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19: 344-356.

Gell, A. 1998. Art and Agency. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gosden, C. and Marshall, Y.M. 1999. he cultural biography of objects. World Archaeology 31: 169-178.

Knappett, C. 2005. hinking hrough Material Culture: an Interdisciplinary Perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Kopytoff, I. 1986. he cultural biography of things. In Appadurai, A. (ed.) he Social Life of hings: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 64-91.

Preucel, R. and Mrozowski, S. (eds) 2010. Contemporary Archaeology in heory: the New Pragmatism. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Documents

Lemonnier Mundane Objects