HomeThe precious object: a total social fact?
The precious object: a total social fact?
L’objet précieux : un fait social total ?
Published on Wednesday, October 04, 2023
Abstract
The international symposium “The precious object: a total social fact? [L'objet précieux: un fait social total?]” (INHA, April 25 and 26, 2024) invites researchers from all fields of the social sciences, from anthropology to economics, from philosophy to sociology, from the history of the arts to that of the techniques and work, to examine the precious object, and jewelry in particular, especially through the prism of value and creation. This initiative, part of a wider EHESS-Cartier collaboration, aims to stimulate a wide-ranging reflection on this interdisciplinary theme par excellence.
Announcement
Argument
Precious objects, and jewelry in particular, have generated repeated and echoed reactions over the centuries and across the globe, despite variations in context and location. Indeed, while the disapproval of an often ostentatious dissipation has been recurrent since Antiquity (Pliny the Elder), the benefits of a precious object has been claimed for aesthetic, symbolic, religious and economic reasons alike, whether it may be an agalma worthy of devotion ; an offering to the gods or the dead ; a symbol of status, power, alliance; a social or family heirloom, both a vehicle and a pledge of transmission or tradition ; an inspiration for artistic creation and the development of techniques ; as majors elements of exchange in the gift economy, and even a driving force behind the capitalist economy as emphasized by Bernard de Mandeville, Jean-Baptiste Say, Werner Sombart, and many others.
Thus, the precious object and jewelry especially, whether carried on oneself, socially exchanged or integrated into spaces, create distinction at all levels, material and symbolic: they “radiate”, according to the worlds of Georg Simmel, attracting attention, reconfiguring the space of appearances, and establishing cultural and social divides and a “partition of the sensible”. Because of their distinctive value, they influence social taste, originate fashion, encourage imitation and counterfeiting, and fake and kitsch reproductions.
Value and creation are keywords for this symposium. These notions summarize many questions, full of echoes and repercussions across the whole spectrum of the social sciences, from anthropology to economics, philosophy to sociology, and the history of the arts to techniques and work.
What properties determine the value of precious substances, such as gold or diamonds, widely shared in many societies and periods? Is gold precious because of its sensory and organoleptic qualities (malleability and resistance, durability, color, and brilliance that attract the eye like the sun's rays) or because of its distinctive attributes (because it is rare, expensive, and difficult to extract), or all these reasons together? Who decides the place of other objects and materials, be they shells, textiles, or glass beads, as paradigms of aesthetic appreciation and specific economic power from prehistory to the contemporary creation of costume jewelry? What is the relationship between the value of precious objects and their price? What role do rarity, antiquity, and technical, craft, or industrial performance play in performing value? How does the circulation of precious objects allow us to compare different societies and reconstruct the hybridizations and reinventions of value as part of a social life of things in the sense of Arjun Appadurai?
As for creation, what are its aesthetic criteria? Between innovation and tradition, reinterpretation and return, exotic import, and local tropism, what are the socially accepted standards for claiming the success or obsolescence of equally “precious” objects? What does the “aura” of a precious object consist of? Is “aesthetic labor” a practical approach to understanding the interweaving of economic and emotional values?
The international symposium “The precious object: a total social fact? [L'objet précieux : un fait social total ?]” (INHA, April 25 and 26, 2024) invites researchers active in all fields of the social sciences to discuss these paths of research. This initiative, part of a wider EHESS-Cartier cooperation, aims to stimulate a wide-ranging reflection on this interdisciplinary theme par excellence.
Submission guidelines
We invite you to send us your proposals, including titles and an abstract of no more than 2,500 characters (approximately 400 words), together with a short bio-bibliography, at the following email address: objetprecieux@ehess.fr
by November 15th, 2023.
Organizing committee
Barbara Carnevali (EHESS, CESPRA), Cecilia D’Ercole (EHESS, ANHIMA), Jérôme Malois (EHESS), Jean-Philippe Miller-Tremblay (EHESS, CESPRA), Anthony Santiso (Cartier), Lynn Serfaty (Cartier).
Scientific committee
Marc Abélès (CNRS/EHESS, LAP), Marco Belfanti (University of Brescia, Italy, Department of economics and management), Claire Bosc-Tiessé (CNRS/EHESS, IMAF), Cléo Carastro (EHESS, ANHIMA), Barbara Carnevali (EHESS, CESPRA), Emanuele Coccia (EHESS, CEHTA), Natacha Coquery (Université Lyon 2, LARHRA), Cecilia D’Ercole (EHESS, ANHIMA), Florence Gherchanoc (Université Paris Cité, ANHIMA), Isabelle Kalinowski (CNRS/ENS, Pays Germaniques), Rémi Labrusse (EHESS, CEHTA), Étienne de la Vaissière (EHESS, CETOBaC), André Orléan (EHESS, PjSE), Pierre Rainero (Cartier), Lynn Serfaty (Cartier), Hannah Williams (Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), United Kingdom).
Subjects
- Representation (Main category)
- Mind and language > Thought
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology
- Mind and language > Religion
- Mind and language > Psyche
- Mind and language > Language
- Society > History
- Society > Economics
Places
- Auditorium Jacqueline Lichtenstein - Galerie Colbert, 2, rue Vivienne
Paris, France (75002)
Date(s)
- Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Keywords
- objet, précieux, bijou, joaillerie, fait social total, valeur, création, art, esthétique, sensibilité, affect, sacré, religieux, aura, pouvoir, symbolisme, circulation, technique, innovation, tradition, reproduction, imitation
Contact(s)
- Jean-Philippe Miller-Tremblay
courriel : jp [dot] mt [at] ehess [dot] fr
Information source
- Jean-Philippe Miller-Tremblay
courriel : jp [dot] mt [at] ehess [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International - CC BY 4.0 .
To cite this announcement
Barbara Carnevali, Cecilia D'Ercole, Jean-Philippe Miller-Tremblay, « The precious object: a total social fact? », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, October 04, 2023, https://doi.org/10.58079/1bwx
