Image - Narration - Context

Narratives are primary agents in the production of social meaning and identity.
They are articulated not only in oral and literal forms of expression, but also
through images and artefacts. By virtue of their materiality, these objects bearing
narrative potential have their speci c contexts of appreciation. But how do images
actually trigger narration? Can we describe the social loci of their observation?
And how do these contexts - social practices, religious rituals, demonstrations of
political power - interact with, and reaffect the artefacts in question? Both case
studies from archaeology and approaches from a wider range of cultural studies seek
to answer these questions within a broader methodological framework.