The social life of books in Malta : a material culture study

Abstract

This is a dissertation on books as a form of material culture in Malta, aiming to understand how meaning and value are created through the relationship between book, individual and the spaces in which they circulate. I accomplish this through interviews with book lovers and observation of the spaces books inhabit. Research on books as objects has either focused on the ‘material’ or ‘cultural’ aspects of the book or has combined the two but lacked an anthropological approach. Through this dissertation, I show that books gain value and meaning in three ways. Firstly, books act as social symbols of status and class in the public and private spheres of society. In so doing, they aid in the formation of identity. Secondly, they act as stores of memory which make book collections an important repository of life events. Finally, they help people connect to others through space and time. In these ways, books become prized possessions. Even if books aren’t the right books for one individual, they are still seen as being of potential value to someone else, making them unlikely objects to end up in the bin.