The world(s) of the cross

Reinvigorating object biography: reproducing the drama of object lives

“…In addition, as has been aptly demonstrated by biographies of long-lived monuments, the biography of some objects is further complicated because they extend over a series of human lifetimes. This means that at each juncture of the life of an object the meaning and role of that object can be influenced by attitudes and perceptions of the past (Moreland 1999). How an object is interpreted can be dependent then upon how its past is perceived and an object can undergo a series of transformations of meaning, or jumps.…”

“…Many studies examine how the perception of and meaning of objects is transformed through exchange (Gallardo et al 1999;Hamilakis 1999;Peers 1999;Saunders 1999;Seip 1999) or through performance . Other papers explore the biography of long-lived objects whose lives extend beyond different systems of understanding and undergo a series of 'reincarnations' (Gillings and Pollard 1999;MacGregor 1999;Moreland 1999; see also Eckardt & Williams 2003). Rainbird (1999) even suggests that the biography of one set of objects can be transferred to another through a process he terms 'biographical entanglement' (see also Joy 2002).…”

“…Portable objects build histories through exchange and circulation (e.g. Peers 1999) and static objects, like monuments, acquire histories by virtue of their longevity as re-interpretations gather around them (Gillings & Pollard 1999;Moreland 1999; see also Holtorf 1998;Last 1998).…”

Wild Cattle: Red Deer in the Religious Texts, Iconography, and Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland

“…Gosden and Marshall, 1999;Kopytoff, 1986;Meskell, 2002;Moreland, 1999). This perspective is asserting a theory of materialism.…”

Material Culture and Social History in Early Medieval Western Europe

“…8 John Moreland has advocated an approach to the past that weighs the evidence of both texts and objects as means for understanding the ways they shaped and changed social relationships, structured everyday life, and "actively produce[d] self and community" at specific historical times and places. 9 Such a contextual approach shows great promise. Here I will examine clothing, everyday objects, and mortuary evidence in the Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and (to a lesser degree) Scandinavian worlds in order to provide examples of methods and evidence within a broad western European social sphere.…”