CONTENTS 
List of Illustrations ix 
Acknowledgments xi 
INTRODUCTION 
ONE 
TWO 
THREE 
THE IDEA OF THINGS AND THE 
[IDEAS IN THEM 1 
THE TYRANNY OF THI 
Fetishisms 2 
Object Lessons 30 
A Trivial Thing 36 
Democratic Objects 43 
THE NATURE OF TI..NGS 
Tteration 54 
Creatures of Habit 59 
Possession 63 
The Miracle of History 68 
Misuse Value 74 
«¥ 
REGIONAL ARTIFACTS 81 
Natural Histories 84 
Life-Groups and the Cultural Thing 
Material History 99 
“A Kind of Fetichism” 113 
Waste Matter 118 
Modernist Archeology 124 
02