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Analyzing Primary Sources: Looking at Objects 835 Views


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Description:

In this video learn about analyzing primary source documents that are objects.


Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in analyzing primary sources looking at

00:06

objects allah shmoop an object can be anything from you

00:11

know a tool we find er can be a fossil

00:16

that's dug up it could be you know the first

00:20

i'm mac that was ever used So an object is

00:24

an actual thing It's tangible You could hold it in

00:26

your hand Let's say you have that civil war diary

00:29

the words there that's the written primary source but the

00:32

diary itself that's the object because it's not just the

00:36

words in the dire that matter how was it bound

00:39

Didn't have a title you know how thick was it

00:42

Was it expensive All these kinds of things that go

00:45

into it objects give us so much to think about

00:48

and they challenge us as primary sources because instead of

00:51

just reading words or just you know looking at images

00:53

we have to think about so many different parts in

00:56

it So if you have a knob jet from a

01:00

certain time period you khun tell you know how people

01:03

were making their food is it You know if someone

01:06

found a kitchenaid today you know they would be like

01:10

okay They weren't doing things my hand you know if

01:12

we find a tool you know from who knows when

01:16

and you know it looks like a hammer We can

01:17

say oh hey look they had hammers then that even

01:20

even knowing that knowing that okay that means that the

01:23

hammer was invented after this point You can tell us

01:26

a lot Think about all the stuff we have got

01:28

our microphones are sure it's all these things it iphones

01:31

Exactly And you think what if someone found our object

01:35

but let's talk about like let's talk about the history

01:37

of some famous objects obviously clay pots that were stores

01:43

of wealth Or you read about the technology of food

01:47

preparation american indians thousand of years ago who had clay

01:52

bowls that were very sturdy and things to presumably bang

01:55

maize or corn into something that was edible and made

01:58

like a bread like substance We think if we're thinking

02:00

about hundreds ofyears about go we can think about thousands

02:03

of years ago like we have stuff from you know

02:06

classical period that we have like full almost intact you

02:09

know pots that the way that the lip of the

02:13

pottery was created can tell us something about how they

02:16

drank or you know what Their special occasions were like

02:19

all these so it's Not just you know ode on

02:21

a grecian urn it's not just like you know what

02:24

was painted on The outside of the pot shows us

02:26

what their ceremonies like actually the object itself and how

02:28

its shape could show us how they used it What

02:32

are the limitations of our vic's primary sources The number

02:38

one limitation is just access to them right You know

02:40

we have to find them dig them up We have

02:42

to make sure that you know that pot that we're

02:44

saying is from you know three hundred bc isn't you

02:48

know actually from eighteen right Or or from the twenty

02:52

first century because people don't know a lot about what

02:54

objects look like and it takes a a very particular

02:57

specialist to be able to say no that's not from

02:59

that time period It's easy to forge them And what

03:01

does that help us sew for a normal kid writing

03:03

a term paper needed to refer to an object And

03:06

they're they're making observations about the product so let's say

03:10

they have a pot or they have ah arrowhead or

03:14

something and they're actually physically able to touch it feel

03:16

it you know and check it out What's the difference

03:21

I mean if you're looking at a picture you can

03:22

say oh that something was painted on it or it's

03:25

shaped this way but let's say you get that pot

03:27

in your hand and when you go toe put it

03:29

up please don't do this in a museum But you

03:31

gotta put it up to your mouth and you notice

03:33

way this is awkward This can't be how they did

03:35

it then you kind of move it around and say

03:37

oh wait this wasn't meant for me to drink myself

03:41

This was meant to pour something a spittoon or to

03:45

use maybe too poor for someone else So maybe it

03:47

was made specifically for someone to use for child or

03:50

whatever that i'm totally making all this up But but

03:52

these are the things that if you aren't holding in

03:53

your hand you might not have the opportunity to notice

03:56

same with like ah hammer you know you try and

03:59

hit something with an old time hammer you might go

04:01

oh this isn't what you do with it It can't

04:03

possibly be But if you looked at a picture but

04:05

you might say oh yeah that's that's how that works

04:07

just because you have this idea in your head god

04:09

it feels like they're between actually going on that wild

04:12

amazon vacation versus running the video what is material history

04:20

What can objects tell us about history and culture What

04:23

are the limitations of objects And you trust that all 00:04:26.281 --> [endTime] objects are real for you

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