"Miller deftly displays a talent for the uncluttered presentationof ideas, largely eschewing complexity without compromising theintegrity of his arguments. By constantly placing his fieldworkcentre-stage, Miller allows the empirical realities of ethnographyto bolster his key proposals and repeatedly encourages readers toquestion and reflect upon material culture and their relationshipswith their own 'stuff'„.
Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford
“[Stuff] really is a little gem. Timely, well-written andhighly accessible, it is a concise and grounded resource in thestruggle to analyse the complexities of contemporary cultural life... For undergraduates and general critical readers alike, it willbe a welcome and thought-provoking reminder that the material worldof things we have created, and which in turn helps to create us, needs to be understood dialectically - for better and forworse.„
Times Higher Education
“[T]here are fascinating things here: a seven-page descriptionof how a woman who wears a sari navigates daily life through thegarment; a portrait of council tenants as „artists“ redecoratingtheir flats in different ways; and analyses of fashion, furnishingand „mobile phone relationships“ in Jamaica. When Miller is focusedon the details, the writing hums with empathetic colour anddetail.„
The Guardian
“This is a unique book that comes from a unique scholar. In thisone volume, one can see the power of material culture as a means tostudy culture and society more generally. The specifics areinformative and the larger formulations profound. The writing isconsistently clear - at times, endearing - and the contentbrilliant.„
Harvey Molotch, New York University
“This book fizzes and sparkles with ideas and intelligence. Professor Miller develops his dialectical theory of materialculture with enviable clarity. Readers are encouraged by hiscaptivating style and lightly-worn scholarship to the frontiers ofthe subject: they will never look at their stuff in the same wayagain."
Ray Pahl, University of Essex
Stuff
von Daniel MillerThe book opens with a critique of the concept of superficialityas applied to clothing. It presents the theories that are requiredto understand the way we are created by material as well as socialrelations. It takes us inside the very private worlds of our homepossessions and our processes of accommodating. It considers issuesof materiality in relation to the media, as well as theimplications of such an approach in relation, for example, topoverty. Finally, the book considers objects which we use to definewhat it is to be alive and how we use objects to cope withdeath.
Based on more than thirty years of research in the Caribbean, India, London and elsewhere, Stuff is nothing less than a manifestofor the study of material culture and a new way of looking at theobjects that surround us and make up so much of our social andpersonal life.
