(in English): Archeological exclavations on plots no. 72.74 in Nymburk present basis for wider study of functional disposition of urban plot and town as a whole. Then, there is a question of material culture of high medieval and early modern household in Nymburk. Shifts and changes in disposition and constructions on the urban plot and waste and water management. Written sources are considered as well as analogies from already researched contexts. History, appearance and development of town of Nymburk is studied and described and earlier field and academic research is summarized. Keywords (anglicky): archeology; town; urban plot; material culture; Middle Ages; Early Modern Period, 1250-1650

This study focuses on expats, professionals and specialists from English-speaking countries who were sent by their employers to work abroad in Switzerland. They together with their families, were asked to move to a foreign country and start new lives. Although the relocation does bring a change in career and in most cases, a better personal economic situation, it also brings with it, big life changes. The most obvious changes are associated with separation from their ancestral homes and families, and the need for the establishment of new ones. The central point of this study is the question of what helps to create these new homes and what is involved in this sphere. The fieldwork, which was defined by cohabitation with the families, consisted of observation and analysis to determine the social and material practices through which expatriate families relate to their homes - and how it was narratively reflected. Some major points of observation included the universal need for the families to have with them, objects of a material nature that linked their new home to the original and contemporary home, and a tendency to establish social ties with other expats as a substitution of the family support network. Also observed were the aspects of the adaptation of the family members to their new homes and...

Here we ask ourselves not where objects come from, but investigate our relationship with what lies beneath the material. Within the Two Point O project, in the Växjö Crisis Edition, the practice of Care Biopics evolves. These individualised interventions bring us face to face with multiple storylines and definitions of an object valued during times of crisis. How does the proposed exploration of Care Biopics, community values and material symbolism facilitate the shift from mindless overconsumption to mindful materialism?Through several aspects of co-creating digital material, definitions and common values, Care Biopics weave a practice of democratic and accessible design. A practice of inclusitivty, caring with and social sustainability. A practice of designing not for, but with the people.

Retired Objects is a project that explores the intimate relationship we humans form with everyday things. My investigation centers around the questions Can we begin to value objects as our equals, rather than as our servants? and What roles do objects play in our daily lives other than fulfilling a practical function?  As a theoretical framework I investigate different facets of our material culture and how we relate to objects, focusing on our emotional connection to them, how we use them as mirror and tools for self-creation, and how being a maker is an integral part of our human identity. Using speculative design methods, I wish to invite us to reimagine our relationship to objects. The result is a series of pre-owned chairs, that I have re-designed, reimagined to envision them in a new light, free from the burden of fulfilling a practical function. Who are they once they retire from their job of serving us? By using design fiction and presenting an alternative narrative I wish to invite us to reimagine the way we relate to everyday objects.

Bibliography: pages 278-301. / The principal intention of this thesis was to study the archaeologically excavated remains from the site of the Grand Parade in central Cape Town. The main lines of argument are centred around the question of the ceramics and how these can be interpreted to add to the knowledge of everyday life at the Cape. This involved excavation of the site, a descriptive report on the site, formulating a typological system of classification relevant to the sample, and interpretation of the ceramic data, considering its context within the local ceramic tradition and the overarching historical background of the Cape. The typological framework used in the ceramic analysis is largely based on the work by Mary Beaudry and others and the interpretive style draws heavily on the ideas about the food domain postulated by Anne Yentsch. A social history paradigm has been used to study the nature of the local evidence, to investigate how the excavated ceramics can be used to inform in one of the most basic cultural traditions involving the foodways of early Capetonians. It has been found: that the typological framework for the ceramic analysis set out in this thesis, is successful in interpreting the ceramics; that the ideological functions of the ceramics remain a less tangible aspect of recreating the past; that although the local food way tradition of the mid-18th century continues to be a complicated web of cultural interactions, through the use of a multi-disciplinary approach, the archaeological evidence can be successfully integrated with the faw:ial, inventory and other docwnentary sources; and that all the aforementioned are crucial to a better, more holistic understanding of the local Cape foodway tradition of the mid-18th century.

The study of material culture study has long been estranged from mainstream academic discourse often dismissed as the examination of pots and pans. Historians are beginning to realize that material culture and cultural reconstruction offer vital insights into the past. Building upon new developments, my project reconstructs the items painted by Joshua Reynolds in his famous painting of Lord Dunmore. This reconstruction allows for the efforts of unnamed tradesmen to be retraced, making a few people and their efforts which were lost to history known once again. By employing written documentation in tandem with extant artifacts, the project recreates every object in the portrait as it would have been done in the past. This study put to the test the benefit of material culture as an academic discipline. By employing an interdisciplinary approach, it allowed for new insights into the past by combining most notably experimental archeology, material culture studies, and academic history. The findings of this research provide insight into the effectiveness of the experiential analysis technique for the purpose of historical study and how it benefits not only current understanding of artifacts themselves but also fills gaps in the lives of those who created and used these items.

Includes bibliography. / This dissertation sets up a standardised system for analysing mid-seventeenth to mid- nineteenth century Cape colonial ceramic assemblages and then applies it to a number of Dutch and British historical sites in the south-western Cape region of South Africa in order to trace patterns of change in the availability and use of domestic ceramics in the colony. The system accommodates the wide range of African, Asian and European ceramics used during the period of Dutch East India rule from 1652 to 1795, the following Transitional years when the Cape was governed for short periods by both the British and Dutch governments and the period from 1815 onwards when the Cape became a British Crown Colony. A systematic ceramic classificatory system was required to form a framework for the first stage of a proposed study of the role of Asian porcelain in the Cape during the 17th and 18th centuries. The resulting Cape Classificatory System has five sections. (i) Ware Table, a ware based classification, records ceramics by sherd count and minimum number of vessels, and acts as a check list for Cape colonial sites. (ii) Date Table provides the accepted dates of production and references for all ceramics excavated in the Cape. (iii) Form and Function Table lists excavated ceramics by vessel form within functional categories. (iv) The Site Catalogue accessions and references (where possible) all the ceramics in an assemblage. (v) A catalogue of previously unreferenced Asian market ware (coarse porcelain) excavated from 17th to 19th century colonial sites in the south-western Cape. Thirty ceramic assemblages from Cape colonial sites and four assemblages from shipwrecks in Cape waters were analysed or examined. The Cape Classificatory System was applied in full to the ceramics from four sites: the Granary, a late seventeenth century Dutch East India site; Elsenburg, an elite mid-eighteenth century farmstead; Sea Street, Cape Town, a town midden in use from the last quarter of the eighteenth century to ca. 1830; and a well in Barrack Street, Cape Town, that was open from ca. 1775 till the late nineteenth century. The results clearly demonstrated changes in ceramic availability, usage and discard in the Cape over a two hundred year period, differences in refuse disposal practices and the dependence of the colony on Asian porcelain, including Asian market coarse porcelain, during the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century.

[pt] Esta pesquisa propõe uma discussão sobre a materialização dos marcadores de gênero no uso de corpo e objetos para construção da figura feminina. Para tal, procuramos entender a performance de drag queens como um processo de concepção de personagem que objetiva representar o feminino. Esta representação se dá tanto nos gestos, expressão corporal e modificações temporárias na forma física, quanto no uso de objetos, adereços e vestuário tipicamente marcados pelo gênero. Buscamos compreender como estes estereótipos se apresentam no imaginário e de que forma a cultura material dá corpo a eles. Trabalhamos com a hipótese de que a atribuição de significado às formas, materiais e cores utilizados no design de produtos demonstra sua contribuição para a (re)produção das diferenças de gênero com as quais a cultura material trabalha. A reprodução de estereótipos não é idealizada conscientemente, mas favorece a manutenção de um sistema de diferenciação pautada em ideais que possuem origens socioculturais. / [en] This research proposes a discussion about the materialization of gender stereotypes on the body and in the use of objects to construct a female figure. For this, we try to understand the performance of drag queens as a process of character conception that aims to represent the feminine. This representation occurs in gestures, body expression and temporary modifications in physical form, as well as in the use of objects, props and clothing typically marked by gender. We seek to understand how these stereotypes present themselves in the imaginary and in what way material culture gives shape to them. We work with the hypothesis that the attribution of meaning to the forms, materials and colors used in product design demonstrates its contribution to the (re) production of the gender differences with which the material culture works. The reproduction of stereotypes is not consciously idealized, but favors the maintenance of a system of differentiation based on ideals that have socio-cultural origins.

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