ShmoopTube

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Thank you We sneak in analyzing primary sources looking at

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objects allah shmoop an object can be anything from you

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know a tool we find er can be a fossil

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that's dug up it could be you know the first

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i'm mac that was ever used So an object is

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an actual thing It's tangible You could hold it in

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your hand Let's say you have that civil war diary

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the words there that's the written primary source but the

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diary itself that's the object because it's not just the

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words in the dire that matter how was it bound

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Didn't have a title you know how thick was it

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Was it expensive All these kinds of things that go

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into it objects give us so much to think about

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and they challenge us as primary sources because instead of

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just reading words or just you know looking at images

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we have to think about so many different parts in

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it So if you have a knob jet from a

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certain time period you khun tell you know how people

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were making their food is it You know if someone

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found a kitchenaid today you know they would be like

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okay They weren't doing things my hand you know if

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we find a tool you know from who knows when

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and you know it looks like a hammer We can

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say oh hey look they had hammers then that even

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even knowing that knowing that okay that means that the

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hammer was invented after this point You can tell us

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a lot Think about all the stuff we have got

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our microphones are sure it's all these things it iphones

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Exactly And you think what if someone found our object

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but let's talk about like let's talk about the history

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of some famous objects obviously clay pots that were stores

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of wealth Or you read about the technology of food

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preparation american indians thousand of years ago who had clay

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bowls that were very sturdy and things to presumably bang

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maize or corn into something that was edible and made

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like a bread like substance We think if we're thinking

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about hundreds ofyears about go we can think about thousands

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of years ago like we have stuff from you know

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classical period that we have like full almost intact you

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know pots that the way that the lip of the

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pottery was created can tell us something about how they

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drank or you know what Their special occasions were like

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all these so it's Not just you know ode on

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a grecian urn it's not just like you know what

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was painted on The outside of the pot shows us

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what their ceremonies like actually the object itself and how

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its shape could show us how they used it What

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are the limitations of our vic's primary sources The number

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one limitation is just access to them right You know

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we have to find them dig them up We have

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to make sure that you know that pot that we're

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saying is from you know three hundred bc isn't you

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know actually from eighteen right Or or from the twenty

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first century because people don't know a lot about what

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objects look like and it takes a a very particular

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specialist to be able to say no that's not from

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that time period It's easy to forge them And what

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does that help us sew for a normal kid writing

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a term paper needed to refer to an object And

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they're they're making observations about the product so let's say

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they have a pot or they have ah arrowhead or

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something and they're actually physically able to touch it feel

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it you know and check it out What's the difference

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I mean if you're looking at a picture you can

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say oh that something was painted on it or it's

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shaped this way but let's say you get that pot

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in your hand and when you go toe put it

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up please don't do this in a museum But you

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gotta put it up to your mouth and you notice

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way this is awkward This can't be how they did

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it then you kind of move it around and say

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oh wait this wasn't meant for me to drink myself

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This was meant to pour something a spittoon or to

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use maybe too poor for someone else So maybe it

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was made specifically for someone to use for child or

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whatever that i'm totally making all this up But but

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these are the things that if you aren't holding in

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your hand you might not have the opportunity to notice

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same with like ah hammer you know you try and

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hit something with an old time hammer you might go

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oh this isn't what you do with it It can't

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possibly be But if you looked at a picture but

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you might say oh yeah that's that's how that works

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just because you have this idea in your head god

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it feels like they're between actually going on that wild

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amazon vacation versus running the video what is material history

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What can objects tell us about history and culture What

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are the limitations of objects And you trust that all 00:04:26.281 --> [endTime] objects are real for you

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