Materiality , materialization

What is materiality? And is it of a different order from semiosis? In this commentary I reflect on the place of materiality—that quality of material phenomena—and materialization—the processes by which such qualities are actualized in social life—in Matthew Hull’s brilliant book, Government of paper (GoP). The analytic materiality is central to Hull’s ethnography, both theoretically (it informs his engagements with James Scott, Bruno Latour, and contemporary linguistic anthropology, among others) and methodologically (it guides his ethnography and analysis). And yet, while Hull demonstrates the term’s pragmatic purchase, he never quite tackles what is “meant” by it head on.1 Bracketing whether this is in fact the point, in what follows I comment on what I think materiality and materialization do in Hull’s analysis, motioning to some issues this raises for linguistic anthropology.