The Ties That Bind: Materiality, Identity and the Life Course in the 'Things' Families Keep

摘要

Using an interdisciplinary research methodology across three archaeological and historical\udcase studies, this paper explores ‘family archives’. Four themes illustrate how objects held in\udfamily archives, curation practices and intergenerational narratives reinforce a family’s sense\udof itself: people-object interactions, gender, socialisation and identity formation and the ‘life\udcourse’. These themes provide a framework for professional archivists to assist communities\udand individuals working with their own family archives. We argue that the family archive,\udbroadly defined, encourages a more egalitarian approach to history. We suggest a multiperiod\udanalysis draws attention to historical forms of knowledge and meaning making\udpractices over time.