Essay on Tuan’s Artifact

Artifact refers to any human-made object that can be preserved in a museum for purposes of reference over time. These objects include tools, sculptures, weapons, and engravings, among others. Defining artifacts this way provides their shallow understanding, which then necessitates the expansion of the objects to include human-constructed materials and mentality, such as myths and legends (Tuan 467). Therefore, the expanded definition broadly describes artifacts, and it avoids the loss of their significance in any way. The crucial characteristic from the description is its ability to retain its meaning even after a long period, provided it is adequately maintained. In addition, Tuan adds another notable feature of an artifact as its ability to be preserved and stored in a museum so that it can be accessed at any time for reference purposes. The museums allow people to study artifacts since they preserve artifacts for longer periods, reserving their value to a specific interested individual or community.

My connection with the artifact’s definition, as a human-made object, mentality, or material, is my great grandfather’s sculpture at our family home. This statue had never lost meaning to me since it was carved a long time ago when he was still alive. The person who carved it created in likeness to my grandfather, including shape and physique, reminding us of his appearance. Furthermore, the sculpture adds significant value, and it is symbolic, as it depicts our ways of life.

The sculpture serves as an object for identity and knowledge for my family. I believe that even future generations will consider it valuable because it is adequately preserved, and because of that, it will not lose meaning. Identity describes a sense of belonging – a role this statue has been playing to my family since it was carved. Leading on from this function, this artifact tells more about our nature and origin, thereby depicting our family customs. In general, I can say that this statue exhibits our identity status in the family.

Cultural codes are identical values, routines, and systems of a particular cultural group. Each group typically has specific cultural practices that define its way of life. In that realm, sculpture communicates many cultural codes to my family. For example, it identifies a particular culture that can be traced to explain our family culturalism. Additionally, this sculpture connects to two specific components of culture in our society: The symbols and values. In the past, the sculpture’s presentation had a symbol connection, as some statue’s paintings would be interpreted as the symbols during my grandfather’s living period, inferring specific messages. The method of presentation also derives an artifact’s value. The carvings were created to depict some cultural values, such as humility and kind nature, readable from the sculpture’s outlook characteristics. Members of my community, specifically my family lineage, resonate entirely with these values, meaning sculpture acts to remind us of acceptable ways of living with one another.

In conclusion, museums’ role is crucial in preserving artifacts for longer periods. These carvings preserve crucial details, information, and heritage of a group of people who share common cultural practices. Knowledge, power, identity, and culture are vital aspects of family identity. People do not live forever, and as such, the only way to transfer these norms and values from one generation to another is by preserving the current cultural practices and presenting them explicitly in the form of artifacts.

Work Cited

Tuan, Yi-Fu. “The Significance of the Artifact.” Geographical Review, 1980, pp. 462-472.