Mapping in History Harvests

A catchy headline

How do material physical objects connect people to their communities? Additionally, how are the objects themselves shaped by the communities?

Items- they’re a part of who we are. Whether it’s your [red lipstick] that makes your high school valedictorian’s speech or your [dog] that helps you find your place in your community, items are more than material objects. They empower us, anchor us to our cultures, connect us to who we are, and help us decide who we will be. They’re a piece of home and of us.

Through items contributed to the History Harvest, we begin to see how objects connect people to who they are. A piece of Kazakhstan and a Grateful Dead concert can have new life in Indiana.

Our group’s objects reflect the effect of identity through these objects. We looked at objects through transitional times (Holden), how they empower us (Lance), how they perserve our identity through time and space (Sam), and (Andy’s items described).

We are not just where we are- we are where we have been and the items we possess demonstrate that. Mapping solidifies these places and shows us not only where we have been but where we can go.

Our group’s objects are all familial pieces of various cultures that reflect the lifestyle of multiple communities across the world. We intend to connect these objects, along with others, while tracking the journeys in which these objects took to arrive in our History Harvest at Indiana University. The objects that we collected are not just meaningless inanimate objects, but treasured items that truly mean something to its owner. Logging these items into our History Harvest allows for these representations of culture to become etched in society for the understanding of future generations.

Spatial analysis as a way of understanding your research question

A brief description of how you chose to divide the objects in light of the spatial analysis approach as an answer to the research question.

The objects we have collected follow a specific path that led them to our History Harvest. Although, these objects have never crossed paths, their stories are all one in the same. These objects have made specific journeys that categorize them as traveling artifacts. Each of the objects have their own meaning and where they come from. Each artifact holds behind it, a story that explains the object’s journey.

Several paragraphs, some of them adapted from your individual research on your objects, go here. Think about the connections from your secondary sources and how some of the other objects from our history harvest fit those connections.

Several paragraphs on the results you see from your spatial analyis so far.

A conclusion

A conclusion about how spatial analysis together with the research you did on your individual objects helped you answer your research question.

Featured artifacts in this exhibit: Mapping in History Harvests