Feb. 25 Discussion Questions

Prown/Haltman—“The Foley Food Mill” by Amy B. Werbel

While the main focus of analysis is a 1930s food mill, Werbel turns to the discussion of women's roles and perceptions as nurturers during the 30s, tying those conceptions into the design and use of the food mill. How does the structure of this essay support Werbel’s purpose/thesis?

Lubar/Kingery—“Artifacts as Expressions” by Mark P. Leone and Barbara J. Little

Leone and Little use the term genealogy “as the version of history that suggests the inevitability of the present social order” (173). How do they present the Maryland State House and the Peale artifacts as genealogical sources?

Durham/Keller—“Postmodern Virtualities” by Mark Poster

Poster says that “modern society” created and nurtured “an individual who is rational, autonomous, centered and stable (the ‘reasonable man’ of the law, the educated citizen of representative democracy,…[etc.]” (534). Poster (writing in 1995) focuses on the developments of the Internet and virtual reality as creating changes in culture, particularly “in the way identities are structured” (533). Do you agree that the Internet helped “foster” identities that are “different from, even opposite to those of modernity?” (534)