ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an introduction to the concept of object biography and the life cycle model, two concepts that can be used when handling the methodological challenges of an object-focused historical enquiry. As a literary genre the biography takes the shape of a story in an organized and structured fashion, starting at the beginning and ending at the end. A sub-category of the life cycle model is the life cycle assessment study. Such a study sets out to examine the entire life cycle of the product, including extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, re-use, maintenance, recycling and final disposal. Adapting the biography approach and the life cycle model addresses the important issue of historical writing. The combined biography and life cycle of the cooking pot can serve in discussions about rates of development in spheres as diverse as technological, industrial, retailing and consumer expansion during the eighteenth century.
