Posted by Jon Hipps on December 02, 1998 at 14:23:34:
In Reply to: Re: Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? posted by James Allen on December 02, 1998 at 05:34:59:
You guys discuss complicated issues. Two seem related
to me. Culturally impoverished and industrial revolution
replacing hand made items. At the turn of the century, the
majority of Americans lived on farms. Their lives
were defined by their relationship to the earth
and to animals. I don't suppose many of us have
this kind of relationship today. That is perhaps
a kind of cultural impoverishment. Pre-industrial
revolution, most people were capable of making much
of what they required for daily living. In Appalachia, this
was the case into the 1930's for a number of
reasons, among them isolation and lack of money.
How many people now make what they need (or have any
idea of how to do it)? How many of us know how to
weave rugs and what that feels like? Cultural impoverishment?
Our daily experiences are far different from those of the
people who wove these rugs but I think we might
You guys discuss complicated issues. Two seem related to me. Cultural impoverishment
and the industrial revolution replacing hand made items. At the turn of the century, the
majority of Americans lived on farms. Their lives were defined by their relationship to the
earth and to animals. I don't suppose many of us have this kind of relationship today. That
is perhaps a kind of cultural impoverishment. We've lost something.
Pre-industrial revolution, most people were capable of making much of what they required
for daily living. In Appalachia, this was the case into the 1930's for a number of reasons,
among them isolation and lack of money. How many people now make what they need (or
have any idea of how to do it)? How many of us know how to weave rugs and what that
feels like? Are we culturally impoverished because we don't know how to make things?
I think there is something to the idea that the conditions of one's life (among other factors, of
course) have much to do with what one creates. Our daily experiences are far different from
those of the people who wove these rugs -- we were closer to them 100 years ago -- and I
think these differences contribute to putting us out of touch with elements (I'm sure there are
better words) in ourselves -- elements which we find in the rugs (and by extension, the
people who wove them, etc.). We want to feel closer to these people in some ways, if only
psychically -- which is something which seems to occur with the experience of living with
their rugs. And, I think, we end up feeling closer to ourselves, too.
We have lost much of what we previously had in our daily lives in the past 100 years. One
can argue that we've gained, too, and what we've gained is superior to what we've lost.
Well, progress is neither good nor bad but I think a lot of what we have lost has
impoverished us. I think collecting ethnographic rugs (or other artifacts -- I don't see any
reason to limit the scope) has something to do with restoring something we've lost in our
symbolic/psychic lives and our daily experience.