Finding Primary Sources

Ask a librarian for help.  Contact your subject specialist to find out about useful reference sources, guides to the literature, and databases on your topic. 

When you are researching objects and artifacts, you are considering the material culture of your subject.  Material culture consists of the physical objects, such as tools, domestic articles, or religious objects, which give evidence of the type of culture developed by a society or group.  (Source:  Oxford English Dictionary, OED Online, 2009)

There are several books in the library about material culture for differnt cultures and time periods.  This list of subject headings may lead you to books that will contain information about objects and materials relevant to your research.

Any physical item can be considered an artifact. In using artifacts as primary sources you've added material culture to your research. This can be a very important complement to text-based primary sources, as artifacts provide a concrete, tangible dimension to your evidence.

An artifact remains almost meaningless, however, without an understanding of its context. In other words, when working with artifacts, similar questions you asked when working with other types of primary sources, such as who was the author, did s/he have a particular viewpoint or objective, etc., need to be asked and answered. In addition to telling you something about its creator, an artifact provides insight into a culture: its customs, preferences, styles, special occasions, work, and play.

An example of working with artifacts following is the theme of lovers expressed in different artifacts coming from different cultures and time periods. Questions that could be asked include: can we draw conclusions about notions of intimacy, sexuality and gender roles; how representative are these artifacts of their cultures; can cultural comparative analyses be made? For answers, as a first step, you should study the artifact by itself. Try to be as comprehensive as possible in describing what you see in front of you. As a second step, you examine the secondary studies other researchers have done and you test their interpretations against the views you have formed. In your final step you present your conclusions, which might favor one scholar's interpretation over that of another, or you advance your own interpretation based on the study of additional primary sources.