Cultural artifact

Library and information science
Part of a series on

Outline Glossary
Histories Libraries - Information
Focus Archives management - Collections management (Preservation) - Data management - Information management (cataloguing) - Knowledge management - Library management
Curation Data - Metadata - Information - Documents - Artefacts - Knowledge
Interdisciplinary fields Archival science - Communication studies - Computer science - Data science - Documentation science - Epistemology - Library science - Information science - Science and technology studies
Areas Academic - Archival - Legal - Health - Private - Public - School - Special
WikiProject Category
v t e

A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences, particularly anthropology,^[1] ethnology^[2] and sociology^{[citation needed]} for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. Artifact is the spelling in North American English; artefact is usually preferred elsewhere.^[3]

Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: it can include objects recovered from archaeological sites, i.e. archaeological artifacts, but can also include objects of modern or early-modern society, or social artifacts. For example, in an anthropological context: a 17th-century lathe, a piece of faience, or a television each provides a wealth of information about the time in which they were manufactured and used.

Cultural artifacts, whether ancient or current, have a significance because they offer an insight into: technological processes, economic development and social structure, among other attributes.

Classification

The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorized artifacts as follows:^[4]

primary artifacts: used in production (such as a hammer, a fork, a lamp or a camera);
secondary artifacts: relating to primary artifacts (such as a user-manual for a camera);
tertiary artifacts: representations of secondary artifacts (such as a picture of a user-manual for a camera).

Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have a physical form (for example virtual artifact), nor to be of historical value (items created seconds ago can be classified as social artifacts).

References

^ Richard J. Watts (1981). The pragmalinguistic analysis of narrative texts. Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN 978-3-87808-443-3.
^ Rob Amery. Warrabarna Kaurna!.
^ "artefact/artifact". OED.com. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
^ Wartofsky, Marx W. (1979). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.

External links

Hilpinen, Risto. "Artifact". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

v t e Culture
Outline
Sciences	Cultural anthropology Cultural astronomy Cultural ecology Cultural geography Cultural neuroscience Cultural studies Culturology Culture theory
Subfields	Bioculture Cross-cultural studies Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural psychiatry Cross-cultural psychology Cultural analytics Cultural economics Cultural entomology Cultural history Cultural mapping Cultural mediation Cultural psychology Cultural values Culturomics Intercultural learning Intercultural relations Internet culture Philosophy of culture Popular culture studies Postcritique Semiotics of culture Sociology of culture Sound culture Theology of culture Transcultural nursing
Types	Constructed culture Counterculture Dominant culture Folk culture High culture Individualistic culture Legal culture Low culture Microculture Official culture Political culture Civic Popular culture Urban Primitive culture Resistance through culture Subculture Alternative culture Fandom Far-right subcultures Youth subculture list Super culture Vernacular culture Culture by location
Aspects	Acculturation Cultural appreciation Cultural appropriation Cultural area Cultural artifact Cultural baggage Cultural behavior Cultural bias Cultural capital Cross-cultural Cultural communication Cultural conflict Cultural cringe Cultural dissonance Cultural emphasis Cultural framework Cultural heritage Destroyed Cultural icon Cultural identity Cultural industry Cultural invention Cultural landscape Cultural learning Cultural leveling Cultural memory Cultural pluralism Cultural practice Cultural property Cultural reproduction Cultural system Cultural technology Cultural universal Cultureme Enculturation High- and low-context cultures Interculturality Manuscript culture Material culture Non-material culture Organizational culture Print culture Protoculture Relational mobility Safety culture Technoculture Trans-cultural diffusion Transculturation Visual culture
Politics	Colonial mentality Consumer capitalism Cross cultural sensitivity Cultural assimilation Cultural attaché Cultural backwardness Cultural Bolshevism Cultural conservatism Cultural contracts Cultural deprivation Cultural diplomacy Cultural environmentalism Cultural exception Cultural feminism Cultural genocide Cultural globalization Cultural hegemony Cultural imperialism Cultural intelligence Cultural liberalism Cultural nationalism Cultural pessimism Cultural policy Cultural racism Cultural radicalism Cultural retention Cultural Revolution Cultural rights Cultural safety Cultural silence Cultural subsidy Cultural Zionism Culture change Culture minister Culture of fear Culture war Deculturalization Dominator culture Interculturalism Monoculturalism Multiculturalism Biculturalism Multiracial democracy Pluriculturalism Polyculturalism Transculturism
Religions	Buddhism Christianity Catholicism Cultural Christians Protestantism Role of Christianity in civilization Eastern Orthodoxy Mormonism Cultural Hindus Islam Cultural Muslims Judaism Sikhism
Related	Animal culture Archaeological culture Bennett scale Cannabis culture Circuit of culture Civilization Coffee culture Cross-cultural Cultural center Cultural competence Cultural critic Cultural determinism Cultural diversity Cultural evolutionism Cultural homogenization Cultural institution Cultural jet lag Cultural lag Cultural literacy Cultural mosaic Cultural movement Cultural mulatto Cultural probe Cultural relativism Cultural tourism Pop-culture Cultural translation Cultural turn Cultural sensibility Culture and menstruation Culture and positive psychology Culture and social cognition Culture gap Culture hero Culture industry Culture shock Culturgen Children's culture Culturalism Cyberculture Death and culture Disability culture Deaf culture Drinking culture Drug culture Eastern culture Emotions and culture Intercultural communication Intercultural competence Languaculture Living things in culture Media culture Oppositional culture Participatory culture Permission culture Rape culture Remix culture Tea culture Transformation of culture Urban culture Welfare culture Western culture Youth culture
Category Commons WikiProject Changes

v t e Visual arts and the art world
Artwork	Appropriation Collage Conceptual art Cultural artifact Drawing Fine art Fine-art photograph Found object Installation art Kinetic art Mixed media bricolage Mural fresco graffiti New media art history digital virtual Painting Performance art Plastic arts Portrait Printmaking Public art street art Sculpture carving relief statue tallest Site-specific art Social sculpture Soft sculpture Stained glass Artwork title
Roles	Artist Collector Conservator-restorer paintings frescos Critic Curator Dealer Model Patron Visual arts education Europe
Places and events	Art auction Art colony Art commune Art exhibition alternative exhibition space Art gallery Contemporary art gallery Art museum Single-artist museum Art school Europe Arts centre Arts festival Artist collective Artist cooperative Artist-in-residence program Artist-run initiative Artist-run space Biennale Commission Sculpture garden Sculpture trail Virtual museum
History of art	Timeline of art Art history (academic study) Art manifesto Art movements Criticism feminist History of painting outline Periods in Western art history Timeline of 20th century printmaking in America
Related	Art market The arts Catalogue raisonné Classificatory disputes Museum collection management deaccessioning Conservation-restoration paintings Cultural policy Destination painting Eclecticism in art Economics of art art finance art valuation Elements of art Index of painting-related articles Outline of the visual arts painting sculpture Provenance Sociology of art Style
Lists	Art magazines Art media Art techniques Art movements Art museums largest most visited sculpture parks single artist Art reference books Colossal sculptures in situ Contemporary artists Contemporary art galleries Modern artists National galleries Painters by name by nationality Photographers Sculptors female Stolen paintings Most expensive paintings, sculptures, works by living artists
Painting portal Visual arts portal Arts portal

Cultural artifact

Classification

References

Further reading

External links