Introduction

Pioneered by Kopytoff (1986), “the cultural biography of objects” has shown its heuristic potential and inspired numerous works that place the object’s change of status, indeed its empowerment, at the centre of their thinking, in fields as varied as the study of collections or of technical systems. This change of focus shifts attention to what constitutes the object beyond its materiality and usage (Thomas, 1991). Objects circulate through different value systems, a transfer that is radical f...