Rosemary A. Joyce

Complementing the concept of object biography, the contributors to this volume use the complex construct of "itineraries" to trace the places in which objects come to rest or are active, the routes through which things circulate, and the means by which they are moved.

The theme of "disturbing bodies" has a double valence, evoking both the work that anthropologists do and also the ways in which the dead can, in turn, disturb the living through their material qualities, through dreams and other forms of presence, and through the political claims often articulated around them.