ABSTRACT
Significant things are indexical and particular: as indexes, they form physical links between their referents and their users. Objects, texts and commodities differ from significant things because they circulate in generally accessible systems in the social order. The difference between heirlooms and inheritance is a difference between the personal and the social, the domestic and the public, the feminine and the masculine. Indeed, the expression, the rag and the particular practice of using it are one and the same cultural process. Practices localize texts into people's immediate conditions of life; practices turn objects into things with particular significance. Brett Williams gives a detailed and insightful study of an African American culture of practices and things in a downscale neighborhood in Washington DC. Wealthier, more upscale people have moved into Lucy and Robert's neighborhood, buying and gentrifying what used to be working-class housing.
