Material Culture

The physical objects, artefacts, and environments that a community produces, uses, and inhabits, along with the meanings and practices embedded in them. In AI and accessibility research, material culture matters because computer vision systems trained on objects from one cultural context (for example, Global North household items) often fail to recognize or correctly interpret objects from other contexts (for example, a belan rolling pin, a trofi trophy, steel drinking glasses, or bangles in Indian homes). Accounting for material culture is essential for building recognition, description, and assistive systems that work globally rather than only for well-represented communities.