Sensitive Objects

Book excerpt: Some objects stand out as personal and important to us. A packed suitcase, an inherited vase, the remains from a humanitarian aid packet – things can be stored with affects. In Sensitive Objects the authors focus on material culture and on practice – on what affect does. Some of them place the issue of sensitivity in a wider frame of professional interest in innovation and culture-tourism. The volume is a contribution to the upcoming field of ‘affect research’ that has so far has been mainly explored in psychology and cultural studies. In their texts ethnologists and anthropologists involved show how established ways of analysing culture benefit from achievements in this field. They use fieldwork to examine how people project affects onto material objects and explore how objects trigger affect. The editors hope that this book will be read across disciplines, not only to promote the value of ethnographic work, but also to incite further theoretically informed creative empirical approaches to affects and material culture.