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Loading... Material World: A Global Family Portrait (original 1994; edition 1995)by Peter Menzel (Author)
Work InformationMaterial World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel (1994)
  
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A fascinating project--sponsored by a number of international organizations--resulting in this richly intriguing book (it will get well-deserved promotion and distribution via all sorts of media). Sixteen photographers traveled to 30 nations to live for a week with families that are "statistically average" for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and subjects collaborated on a portrait of the family, outside of its home, surrounded by all of its material possessions--a few jars and jugs for some, an abundance of electronic gadgetry for others. The 360 color photos are accompanied by information about the standard of living in each country, notes by the photographers about their experiences, and profiles of family members and their lives. We are witnessing the emergence of a unified world economy, as exemplified by NAFTA and GATT, that will, in theory, make goods available at cheaper prices, create new jobs throughout the world, raise standards of living, and benefit the average family. However, population growth and resource exploitation will also affect these potential benefits as patterns of consumption change. In stunning photographs and text, Material World demonstrates the present context for the emerging global economy, what it means to be "statistically average, " by displaying families in more than thirty nations outside their homes - with all their possessions in view. Among the 350 stunning images are those of a family in lush Samoa juxtaposed with a Kuwaiti family and the two Mercedes-Benzes parked outside their desert home a family in Iceland posing with their treasured string instruments while a family in Sarajevo huddles outside their bullet-ridden apartment. The text describes what it means to be "average" in each of thirty very dissimilar cultures and the impact of each way of life on the local environment. Statistical information about each country accompanies the photo-essays so that readers can easily compare one culture with another. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)306.85Social sciences Social sciences, sociology & anthropology Culture and institutions Marriage, partnerships, unions; family FamilyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (4.59)
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Families of the world and their possessions
Wikipedia in English (1)
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The portrait of each family is accompanied by national statistics for their country, a sketch of their daily routine, and brief reflections from the photographer. These latter are uniformly interesting. Of the statistics, the most striking is the percentage of income spent on food. In Haiti, this was 80% and in Russia, 60%. The most memorable of the portraits for me was from Sarajevo, Bosnia during the brutal war. The family photo includes two armed UN soldiers, several wrecked vehicles, an old mortar shell, and their war-damaged home in the background. The text describes the country’s breakdown: this average family had no electricity, gas, running water, or reliable access to food anymore. The 65-year old mother in the photograph had not ventured out of the flat for nearly 3 years, due to fear of urban warfare. While other families in the book express fear of theft and violence, notably in Russia and South Africa, only in Sarajevo is it so chillingly visible.
As the book is now 25 years old, I can’t help wondering how average families have changed in the time since. During subsequent years, I imagine the greatest changes in possessions available to an ‘average’ family have occurred in the middle income countries, especially China. Given increases in wealth inequality, though, perhaps not. With the rise of fast fashion and portable devices, the volume of possessions in rich countries has surely increased on average, though.
The British family portrait inevitably invited comparisons with my life in 1993. Compared with the wonderfully stereotypical-looking Godalming family photographed, mine definitely had fewer possessions (no microwave, VCR, or large musical instruments, for instance). Yet the book also makes clear that the UK was (and still is) one of the world’s wealthiest countries. In 1993, my family were materially better off than the vast majority of humanity.
‘Material World’ is a striking snapshot of material culture across the world in the early 1990s. The photographs are beautiful and invite careful perusal. When combined with the text, they add up to a powerful work of global anthropology, full of details like when the children go to school, who works and where, and how the family feels about the future. I’d love to read a re-run of this project 25 years later, comparing average families across the global anew. It's just really interesting to see people's stuff! While there may have been some changes, overall global patterns of wealth and poverty probably aren’t that different. In 1993 it was TV that brought disparate places into awareness of each other; today the internet also does so. Across the world, then and now, people still need the means to prepare and serve food; wash and store clothes; sit and sleep. The range of different possessions used for these purposes, and homes that hold them, are fascinating to see chronicled with such deliberation. (