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The Weight of Creation(ism)

August 31, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

“…it is an inherent characteristic of common-sense thought precisely to deny this and to affirm that its tenets are immediate deliverances of experience, not deliberated reflections upon it…common sense rests its [case] on the assertion that it is not a case at all, just life in a nutshell. The world is its authority.”—Clifford Geertz, “Common Sense as a Cultural System” “Wherever we turn, there is the Face of God…” —Harun Yahya Last week a colleague of mine in the Religion […]

Categories: Anthropology, Books, Education, Mystery Objects, Mythologies, Religion • Tags: adnan oktar, Atlas of Creation, Clifford Geertz, common sense, Creation Museum, Creationism, Global Publishing, Harun Yahya, Richard Dawkins, weight

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Mystery Object #11: Lung Money

August 3, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

The other day, as I was paying for a cup of coffee in Greenville, Ohio, I looked down to see a most unbelievable thing—a massage raffle for a lung transplant. Let me write that again just in case you missed it the first time: A massage raffle for a lung transplant. Had I been in a bit more of a hurry to pay for my coffee I might not have looked down and read the details of the request: The photocopied […]

Categories: Bodies, Gambling, Healthcare, Mystery Objects, Politics • Tags: health, healthcare, lung transplant, raffle

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Mystery Object #10: Brass Private Property Sign

August 3, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Last week, while walking on the sidewalk up the street toward Market Square in Pittsburg, PA, I noticed a small brass plaque mounted in the brick sidewalk at the edge of the street at the corner of Forbes Ave and Delray Street. It simply said, PRIVATE PROPERTY. The brass and brick made the simple message—about the size of a business card—seem proper or even classy. That it was written in all caps and even needed to be there in the first place, however, […]

Categories: Discipline, Mystery Objects, Space, Surveillance • Tags: Occupy Wall Street, Pittsburg

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Mystery Object #8: Commemorative Flask Keychain

January 10, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

I can think of no better souvenir of a place of natural beauty like Big Sur than a vintage, commemorative, flask keychain shining with reflections of American heritage. A keychain. For car keys. For a car. For driving. With a flask. For alcohol. For Drinking. Seriously. This mystery object sends so many messages on so many levels all at one time that it makes my brain just want to shut down and give up even trying to understand. First there […]

Categories: Mystery Objects, Tourism • Tags: alcohol, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, drinking culture, keychain, souvenir

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Mystery Object #7: Day Glo Watergate Poster

January 9, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

If he were still alive, today would have been Richard Nixon’s 100th birthday. No doubt because anniversaries make for easy news stories, I have already heard more than a few mentions in the media of Nixon’s legacy. The Vietnam War. The rapprochement with Mao’s China. Was he a war time president? What was his legacy? (Interestingly, I have heard no mention at all of one very influential event of his presidency—the decision to abandon the gold standard in August of […]

Categories: Mystery Objects, Politics • Tags: Post-Modern, Poster, Richard Nixon, Watergate

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Mystery Object #6: June 4th Commemorative Poster (六四宣传画)

November 20, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

This evening while going through a collection of old posters I came across a poster that I collected in early 1990 while studying abroad in Chengdu.  The low quality paper is already yellowing and has a slight tear, otherwise it is in pretty good condition. One of a printing of only 10,000 copies, it originally sold for ¥.08. For a city of over 7 million people, that is a very small number.  I imagine that there might only be a few […]

Categories: China, Mystery Objects • Tags: June 4, propaganda poster, Tiananmen, 六四

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Mystery Object #5: Totem of Emergency Protection +1

October 2, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Today while leaving campus, as I have each day for ten years, I noticed a new addition to the campus topography. Just at the south edge of campus, between two dorms, was a giant dark brown pole with a big blue light on top. Along the side of the pole, written in large letters was “Emergency & Information.” The pole is called a Code Blue Emergency phone and is one of the fine fear abatement products produced by a company […]

Categories: Discipline, Higher Education, Mystery Objects, Mythologies • Tags: fear, Michel de Certeau, neighborhood, sacred object, safety

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Mystery Object #4: Carnival Red Star Target

August 17, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Sometimes everyday things can suddenly be reinterpreted in entirely new ways. Take, for example, a simple paper target that I have had taped on my office door for the last two years… Never any good at games of chance and skill, carnival games have always made me feel like Charlie Brown when Lucy volunteers to hold the football: I entertain a moment of hope, only to have the ball ripped away at the last minute. Things were different one afternoon […]

Categories: Mystery Objects • Tags: Communism, Minnesota State Fair

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Mystery Object #3: Snow Globes

August 10, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

I have a small collection of souvenirs collected on a shelf in my office. I they are not personal souvenirs, but a teaching collection that I use in a class I teach on the anthropology of travel: Pilgrims, Travelers, and Tourists. For this reason, I have tended to collect the most kitschy souvenirs I can find—souvenirs that scream, “I am a souvenir!” In other words, I have been collecting meta-souvenirs which reference their souvenir-ness more than the site where they were […]

Categories: Made in China, Mystery Objects, Tourism • Tags: Casablanca, China, Morocco, Paris, Rome, snow globe, souvenir, Susan Stewart, travel, vacation

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Mystery Object #2: Arby’s Sauce Dispenser

April 27, 2012 by Museum Fatigue

Sometimes mystery objects can be right in front of my face—camouflaged by their ubiquity. All it takes is just the right moment, when my guard is down and then suddenly I see them for what they really are. This is definitely what happened last week when I came upon this amazing object. I had been walking back along University Avenue after shooting a collection of photos of the light rail construction when I suddenly realized how hungry I was. I […]

Categories: Food, Mystery Objects • Tags: food

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