Die soziale Bedeutung der Dinge. Überlegungen zur materiellen Kultur im Anschluss an Malinowski, Husserl, Simmel und Adorno

Abstract

Contemporary cultural studies are focusing increasingly on the intrinsic meaning of material culture. Nevertheless, it often remains unclear wherein exactly the independent meaning of things consists. While traditional sociological explanations tend to understand cultural artifacts as a mere reflection of human meaning, more recent approaches tend to dissolve the material side of objects in linguistic models. Against this background, the article takes up an idea of culture as an interaction between matter and spirit that already emerged in B. Malinowski and attempts to further elaborate this concept of interaction by drawing on considerations by E. Husserl and G. Simmel. Finally and with regard to T. W. AdornoI will argue that things should not be understood as signs of an external meaning, but as social mediation.

Keywords:

• Materielle Kultur,
• Objektivierung,
• Entfremdung,
• Interaktion,
• Vorrang des Objekts