Interpretive Approaches: ContextualismWarren argued repeatedly for a holistic, contextual approach to the study of traditional material culture and folklife that would enlighten people today about the everyday life of rural Americans prior to the Industrial Revolution. That planes were used by the cabinetmaker to shape wood was not enough. In order to truly understand the art of cabinetmaking, one needed to learn as much as possible about the tools that were required: where, how, by whom and with what they were made; how they were sharpened when they became dull; how they varied across cultures and regions; which plane was used for which purpose; and so on. "We cannot hope to understand artifacts unless we can understand their cultural context. An artifact separated from its cultural context and stuck in a glass case is like a fish out of water. We can measure and weigh the fish and count its scales, but we can never understand what fish are really like unless we can see them swimming in their element. So it is with artifacts. We must do our best to understand how they were made and how they were used, to understand, in short, the people and the society in which they flourished. This is a tough assignment, I realize, but it should be the goal of students of traditional material culture." “Folklife and Traditional Material Culture: A Credo,” in Viewpoints, 19.
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About Warren E. Roberts
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Historic-Geographic Method