Tracing artefact trajectories Following Chinese export porcelain

Grant McCracken has argued that 'Consumer goods have a significance that goes beyond their utilitarian character and commercial value' and that 'this significance consists largely in their ability to carry and communicate cultural meaning' (McCracken, 1988: 71). Furthermore, Arjun Appadurai has suggested that the meanings of objects 'are inscribed in their forms, their uses, their trajectories' (Appadurai, 1986: 5). This paper attempts to follow the trajectories of certain artefacts in order to look at some of the processes by which consumer goods were created, transported, bought, used and disposed of.