Cultural artifact

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Cultural artifact or artefact 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 American English; artefact is usually preferred elsewhere.

Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: social artifact and archaeological artifact. Cultural artifacts can include objects recovered from archaeological sites, or archaeological artifacts, but can also include objects of modern or near-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.

The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorised artifacts as follows:^[3]

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 sculpture of a user-manual for a camera).

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

References

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v t e Visual arts and the art world
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↑ Wartofsky, Marx W. (1979). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.

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