Materiality and Material Consumption

MaterialityMateriality is an abstract concept, so it is challenging to comprehend. To understand this concept, one has to go beyond the “mindMind-matter dualism” (consciousness and matter) and understand it from a monistic perspective. If this is not possible, a more dialectical view (i.e., more in line with the dialectic of the Chinese cultural tradition) is preferable: mindMind and matter are integral, there is no matter without mindMind, and there is no mindMind without matter; the two are inseparable. Back in the context of archaeology, the matter is cultural, meaningful presence, and historical existence. Human practice is the unity of human subjective agencyAgency and matter.