Why Do We Collect

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  • 8/10/2019 Why Do We Collect

    1/5

    Wesley Huang

    Collecting

    10-15-14

    Why do we Collect?

    Forget the baseball cards and the stamps. Think about the man who has nearly

    every species of cactus and the woman who picks up empty bottles to deliver to the

    recycling center. The exquisiteness of finding each distinct form of cactus and the time

    and effort to amass each plastic bottle should put both of these activities on the same

    plane as collecting baseball cards or stamps. Connotatively, the act of collecting seems

    to be reserved for certain physical objects such as types of rocks or exotic animals; as

    society forgets the implicit individualization in collecting. History suggests that collecting

    is part of human nature and that each individual does some form of collecting, whether

    it is collecting tangible or intangible objects. Humans collect for personal reasons,

    ranging from pathological hoarding to rational, everyday gathering that offers personal

    satisfaction. Each collection is created for a different reason which is sometimes known

    only to the person who created it. However, whatever the motivation, collections are

    amassed by people because they satisfy mans need for completion.

    Humans have always felt a need to collect objects or artifacts to try to

    complete oneself. Hunters and foragers gathered berries and hunted meat, and saved

    natural materials to make tools. Egyptian pharaohs accumulated gold and precious

    jewels to be buried with them in their great pyramids. Roman citizens collected Greek

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    Wesley Huang

    Collecting

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    statues and its government collected taxes from its people. Catholic churches during

    the Middle Ages compiled religious artifacts such as the stones that Jesus stood on

    during the Ascension or splinters from the Cross. Nobles during the Renaissance

    treasured the arts and filled their houses with Leonardos and Titians.

    All of these are concrete items, which are supported by novelist G. Thomas

    Tanselles definition ofcollecting as the accumulation of tangible things(Tanselle, p.

    1). This definition allows those in the lower social classes to be covered in the umbrella

    of collecting as there is no need to collect exotic animals or Raphael paintings to be

    known as a collector. Collecting as an action now overcomes socioeconomic boundaries

    and cultural lines. While this may seem that collecting has become universalized, it

    allows ordinary people to feel some personal pride in their collecting.

    Yet one may argue that storing memories and experiences in the mind deserve

    the same recognition as collecting physical objects. Tanselle claims that the difference

    between thoughts and objects is that one is an internal repertoire of ideas and the

    other an external grouping of tangible materials (Tanselle, p. 4). Therefore, according

    to Tanselle, it appears reasonable to exclude mental repertories from our definition of

    a collection (Tanselle, p.4). The author makes some sensible arguments to exclude

    mental collection from what constitutes a collection, but without mental accumulation

    of experiences or memories, collecting physical objects would have no connection to

    personal feeling. The physical act of collecting is not what makes the collecting

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    Wesley Huang

    Collecting

    10-15-14

    distinctive to a person but rather the psychological and emotional effects evoked from

    the act make the collecting distinctive. Therefore, the classification of collecting should

    include tangible itemsin addition to accumulating intangible items.

    The human need to collect stems from the desire to feel complete, to feel as if

    they are making their contribution to the material world. Collecting allows one to

    express ones interests. Stamp collecting, for example, happens because the person

    enjoys the many different kinds of stamps, or he likes the texture and feel of stamps or

    even perhaps he wants the stamps for the eventual monetary value. It does not matter

    the reason for a person to collect stamps; it is unique and personal to the person

    himself, helping to complete ones identity.

    Another part of the process of finding a sense of completion is found in natural

    human curiosity. Whenever one collects an object, he takes it out of its immediate

    context and places it in another status significant to the collector. Taking a vase for

    example and using it as an aesthetic exhibition instead of its use as a liquid container

    changes the treatment of the object, giving it a new meaning and idea. It allows the

    object to tell the story of its life (Tanselle, 11). This changing of the objects purpose

    occurs because human inquisitiveness questions the validity of each objects function.

    This curiosity creates the catalyst for making a collection especially unique and personal

    to the collector.

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    Wesley Huang

    Collecting

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    The next logical step to self-fulfillment naturally becomes understanding the

    purpose and the need of ones collecting. There lies an intricate relationship between

    the collected object and the collector himself. It may be simple for a person collecting

    water bottles; the person needs or wants to do it for the financial benefit that may

    occur. For a person who acquires art statues, a more complex relationship occurs. For

    some, the intimate sentiment that comes from studying art creates a closer tie with the

    collection, while for others a need for higher social standing explains the craving for art

    statues. At the other end of the spectrum, collecting intangible objects such as

    memories or thoughts gives a deeper sense of the human desire to understand. While a

    physical collection can be picked apart and studied from all angles, a memory requires

    personal inner strength and thought to truly understand the memory. A person can

    search through the plethora of memories in the mind and choose one he wants to

    comprehend. Making sense of these memories accomplishes a step in making the

    person feel whole in both mind and body.

    Collecting has a unique place in creating humanitys variety of distinctive

    characters and peoples. Since the dawn of time, humans have felt a need and necessity

    to collect, from physical survival items to visual artistic objects to basic articles turned

    collection and even the collection of intangible objects such as recollections and

    thoughts. Without collecting, humanity would have lacked the crucial action that allows

    each individual to attain its own completion.

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    Collecting

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    Bibliography

    1. Tanselle, T.A Rationale of Collecting, Studies in Bibliography1998.

    Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia. Print.

    Read by GAF: Alice Tessen