Posted by James Allen on December 03, 1998 at 09:00:08:
In Reply to: Re: Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? posted by Yon Bard on December 02, 1998 at 14:48:04:
: I think we shouldn't romanticize our collecting habits. People collect; it's probably a sublimation of our primordial hunting-gathering. People collect old masters, stamps, Barbie dolls, electric insulators made of glass, tribal rugs, pet rocks, pottery - you name it. Some of these are just sets of meaningless objects, some of these have artistic merit, some of these are exotic, some are mundane. What a given person collects is a result of a combination of chance and taste, and I know of no reasonable explanation for why people (often from the same background) have different tastes - in food, music, rugs, spouses - again, you name it. It often happens that once you start collecting something you become intellectually and emotionally interested in the culture that produced it; sometimes, conversely, you start out interested in some culture, then start to collect its artifacts.
: Those of us who collect, say, Turkmen artifacts can romanticize about it more than those who happen to collect artifacts from more sedate cultures, but let's not give ourselves airs - at heart it is likely that most of us are just collectors.
: Regards, Yon
: Yon; I want to know who issued your Jewish Grandmothers' Liscense?>?? JIM ALLEN