What (Caribbean) Things Mean & Why They Matter

Exploring Material Culture Pt. 1 & 2

This now weekly posting began simply because I was drawn to things…Caribbean things, specifically. The objects created uniquely through, by and for the Caribbean experience, all of which contribute to what is called “material culture”.

We’re a couple months in so I decided to take a step back and start at the start. In this two parter, we’ll first tackle the what and the why of material culture. In the second installation, we get into the juicy bits, namely, why in particular is Caribbean material culture important. Honestly I can’t wait to get into that and hopefully get your thoughts as well.

This week’s post also features work from photographer Ivar Wigan whose work captures some of Jamaica’s street culture. Wigan had been visiting the island for a decade before the project and makes a point to recognize his position as outsider and the implications that come with that.
More about the work here

Ivar Wigan, Jamaica, 2015

What is Material Culture?

Consider all the objects that you physically touch today, the myriad of products that you encounter throughout the day. From the mattress you slept on, to the mug you chose for that first morning coffee, to the car that transported you to an awaiting world of even more things…our lives are full of STUFF. That stuff, it turns out, can be a critical key to unlocking who we are.

Think back to your first moments of consciousness this morning. Many of us instinctively reached out for our smart phones (if you’re among the folks who don’t, I genuinely applaud your will power here). How would you describe this clearly critical object? What does it look like? How does it feel? What function does it serve? Now dig a little deeper…How do you feel about this object? What does it signal about you and how does it factor into your relationships with others?

Now apply those same questions to everything you touch today, the things you adorn yourself in, that objects that you surround yourself with…everything.

The study of material culture begins with the premise that the “things” that we interact with on a daily basis, the physical objects in and around our lives, are critical signs, symbols and tools for our complex social systems. Put another way, the study of material culture is the study of societies, past and present, through observation and analysis of the physical objects generated and used by them.

Ivar Wigan, Jamaica, 2017

Material culture studies focuses not just on the artifacts themselves, but rather the meaning of those objects to people. One of the features that characterize humans apart from other species is the extent to which we interact with objects, whether they are used or traded, curated, adapted or discarded. In the creating, reimagining, exchanging and consuming of objects, we communicate a particular public self. Objects, in other words, are like blank slates upon which we project our needs, desires, ideas and values. As such, material culture contains important information about who we are, who we were and who we want to be.

Ultimately, when the question of why material culture is worthy of , the simple answer is that things matter. Things complete the story of us.

Part 2; Why Caribbean Things Matter

A note on the artwork
The images that accompany this week’s post are from a number of contemporary Caribbean artists, I hope you enjoy and have a chance to look through more of their work. I also hope that they offer something new for you in this evolving construction of “Caribbeanness”. While unravelling the colonial legacy is important in its own right, it is equally important to add to the layers of identity with the language of today as well as the imagineerings of our future selves (my future self imagines that imagineering will be a true and active word!)

Fermín Ceballos, “Isolation” (2005), photo of performance, Santo Domingo (photograph by Sayuri Guzmán, courtesy the artist)

To be fair, the question is not ‘do Caribbean things matter’, but rather, ‘does the Caribbean matter’?

If material objects are essentially physical articulations of the values and systems within a society, then things are as much the past, present and future of a place as the land itself. And so, we settle on this question of relevance, representation and value, all from the “stuff” we see but don’t see, but that also sustains our global connective tissue. As Caribbean nations and people, we are not just plugged into that web, we built it in very real and tangible ways. The Caribbean has always and continues to be in dialogue with the world through the production and consumption of things.

The untruth that we have been passive in our own history making, in the making of this material world, is in direct conflict with the physical evidence. From gold to sugar to bauxite, there is no empire on earth that hasn’t benefitted in some way from the people and products of our region. An analysis of the consequences of that continued extraction is well fought and well worn territory. While we continue to grapple with that legacy however, what we often fail to recognize is our equally important role as active consumers. Our traditional garments have origins in India, our technology comes largely from China…even our tourist bric a brac is mostly imported. Caribbean things do not begin or end with products of a slave economy. Nor do they necessarily retain their original form or intended use. Caribbean people, as we well know, are masters of transformation.

Ebony G. Patterson, …three kings weep..., 2018, three-channel digital video, color, sound, 8 minutes 34 seconds.

One of the main issues with the study of material culture is that it often ignores the ways in which products are used over time and how that subsequent use is shaped by their environments. The intimate and immediate value of an object is only a portion of its power. Our things, these artifacts of Caribbean life, are shaped by and through the unique conditions of island living. The idea of what is disposable and what is not, what has value and what does not, and the accompanying emotional baggage of all of those differences, these things are unique to us and we must continue to assert that ourselves. A crochet doily on an ornate mahogany table speaks more to Caribbean design than all pages of any glossy magazine touting essential “island style”.

Caribbean things matter for the same reason that the Caribbean matters; because we are present and we remember. We remember it all; not just the legacy of slavery, and the stain of imperialism, but the early faltering steps of independence, and the shifting centers of economic growth. We also exist in the present, grappling with present day complex notions of individual freedom, collective liberation, and nation building, all of which take place through our relationship with things.

Caribbean things matter for the simple reason that things matter; they are our mythos, our memory and our unfolding future.

More info / work from these artists, here

https://ferminceballos.com/

http://ebonygpatterson.com/

https://www.nyugensmith.com/