4/9/2021 Cultural artifact - Wikipedia
Cultural artifact
A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and
British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social
sciences, particularly anthropology,[1] ethnology[2] and sociology for
anything created by humans which gives information about the
culture of its creator and users. Artifact is the spelling in North
American English; artefact is usually preferred elsewhere.
Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered
with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: it can include
objects recovered from archaeological sites, i.e. archaeological
artifacts, but can also include objects of modern or early-modern
society, or social artifacts. For example, in an anthropological
context: a 17th-century lathe, a piece of faience, or a television each
provides a wealth of information about the time in which they were Nikon D200 Digital Camera
manufactured and used.
Cultural artifacts, whether ancient or current, have a significance
because they offer an insight into: technological processes, economic development and social structure,
among other attributes.
Contents
Classification
See also
References
Further reading
External links
Classification
The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorised artifacts as follows:[3]
primary artifacts: used in production (such as a hammer, a fork, a lamp or a camera);
secondary artifacts: relating to primary artifacts (such as a user-manual for a camera);
tertiary artifacts: representations of secondary artifacts (such as a picture of a user-manual for a
camera).
Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have a physical form (for example virtual
artifact), nor to be of historical value (items created seconds ago can be classified as social artifacts).
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4/9/2021 Cultural artifact - Wikipedia
See also
Art object
Cultural icon
Biofact
Meme
Mentifact
References
1. Richard J. Watts (1981). The pragmalinguistic analysis of narrative texts (https://books.google.com/b
ooks?id=4SIXk2bp5u8C&q=The+pragmalinguistic+analysis+of+narrative+texts&pg=PP1). Gunter
Narr Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87808-443-3.
2. Rob Amery. Warrabarna Kaurna! (https://books.google.com/books?lr=&as_brr=0&q=warrabarna+kau
rna!&btnG=Search+Books).
3. Wartofsky, Marx W. (1979). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The
Netherlands: Reidel.
Further reading
Habib, Laurence, and Line Wittek (2007). The portfolio as artifact and actor. Mind, Culture and
Activity, Vol. 14, No. 4, ISSN 1074-9039 (https://www.worldcat.org/search?fq=x0:jrnl&q=n2:1074-903
9).
External links
Hilpinen, Risto. "Artifact" (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/artifact/). In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
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