Cultural artifact

A cultural artifact (or artefact) is a thing made by people that tells us about the culture of the people who made or used it. The word "artifact" is used in North America, and "artefact" is used in other places. The term is used by people who study humans and society, like anthropologists, ethnographers and sociologists.[1][2]

The term "cultural artifact" is broad. It includes old objects found by archaeologists, called archaeological artifacts, but also things from modern times, called social artifacts. For example, a 17th-century tool, a piece of pottery, or a television can all tell us a lot about the time and people who made and used them.

Cultural artifacts are important because they help us understand how people made things, how their economy worked, and how their society was organized.

Types of artifacts

Philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky divided artifacts into three groups:[3]

  1. Primary artifacts: tools used to make or do things, like a hammer, fork, lamp, or camera.
  2. Secondary artifacts: things related to primary artifacts, like a camera’s instruction book.
  3. Tertiary artifacts: images or copies of secondary artifacts, like a photo of a camera’s instruction book.

Social artifacts do not have to be physical objects. They can be virtual or new things made just moments ago. They do not need to be old or historical.

References

  1. ↑ Richard J. Watts (1981). The pragmalinguistic analysis of narrative texts. Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87808-443-3.
  2. ↑ Rob Amery. Warrabarna Kaurna!.
  3. ↑ Wartofsky, Marx W. (1979). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.
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