Material culture

This thesis is a critical study of two exhibits, First Encounters Spanish Exploration in the Caribbean and A Tribute to Survival. The objective of the thesis was to understand if and how indigenous activists, using the media as tool, were able to change curatorial approaches to exhibition development. Chapter 1 is broken into three sections. The first section introduces the exhibits and succinctly discusses the theory that is applied to this thesis. The second section discusses the objectives of the project and the third provides a brief outline of the document. Chapter 2 discusses the historical background of American museums in an attempt to highlight changes in curatorial attitudes towards the public, display, interpretation, and authority. Chapter 3 gives a more in-depth overview of the methodology and materials utilized in the thesis. Chapter 4 is a critical analysis of the literature for both First Encounters and A Tribute to Survival. Chapter five is a summary of the thesis and offers a conclusion of the effectiveness of using the media as a tool.

A 'wave of nostalgia' has gripped the US leading to nostalgic fashions, furniture, television programming and even food. The marketing literature suggests that nostalgic-related consumption is the result of an aging population. It has been proposed that the purchase of nostalgic-products and services is an attempt by mature consumers to return psychologically to the ease, certainties and conflict free periods that existed or seemed to exist during their childhood or adolescence. This paper proposes that discontinuity, as argued by Davis (1979), is a better explanation for why people develop a preference for and consume nostalgic goods. Although some insights have been developed, research focused only on mature consumers and is rather limited in offering alternative explanations for the evocation of nostalgic feelings. MANCOVA was the primary method used to test hypotheses. Findings of this study indicate that discontinuity does not necessarily lead to nostalgia and preference for nostalgic products varies.

This dissertation is concerned with the role material culture played in transformation and/or retention of Maya authority, just prior to and after Spanish contact (A.D. 1100-1800s). The primary research data used to discuss this transition was derived from the author's analysis of precolumbian and colonial artifacts from the Ciudadela Structure (YUC 2) in Tíhoo/Mérida, Yucatán-an assemblage originally collected by John Goggin in 1956 and 1957 and currently housed at the University of Florida-Florida Museum of Natural History. As one of the last standing structures in the Maya site of Tíhoo, now buried beneath the Spanish capital city Mérida, the Ciudadela collection represents a rare glimpse into a significant, yet understudied, Type 1 archaeological site. Included in this project are a general examination of Maya studies in the Northwestern Yucatán Corridor and the results of my preliminary classification and viii discussion of materials represented in the YUC 2 assemblage. I t is important to note that as a part of this project, I created the first comprehensive catalogs for the YUC 2 Ciudadela collection, entitled FMNH YUC 2: Catalog of Artifacts, FMNH YUC 2: Ceramic Stylistic Catalog and FMNH YUC 2: Non-Ceramic Catalog. Results of the archaeological component of this study illustrated that there was little change in production of indigenous pottery after the fall of Mayapan (ca. A.D. 1441-1461), as inhabitants of precolumbian Tâihoo continued to use preexisting wares from their former capital, particularly those within the Mayapan Red Ware and Mayapan Unslipped Ware classifications, well into the Colonial period. In the Post-Colonial period, a significant change in wares occurred as native inhabitants incorporated foreign ceramic types into their society.