Belk Possessions Sense of Past

8/22/2019 Belk Possessions Sense of Past

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The Role of Possessions In Constructing and Maintaining A Sense of PastRussell W. Belk, University of UtahIn the litde houses the tenant people siftedtheir belongings and the belongings of theirfathers and of their grandfathers. Picked overtheir possessions for the journey to the west.The men were ruthless because the past hadbeen spoiled, but the women knew how thepast would cry to them in the coming days.The women sat among the doomed things,turning them over and looking past them andback. This book. My father had it. He likeda book. Pilgrim's Progress. Used to read itGot his name in it. And his pipestillsmells rank. And this pictu re-a n angel. Ilooked at that before the fust three come~didn't seem to do much good. Think we couldget this china dog in? Aunt Sadie brought itfrom the St. Louis Fair. See? Wrote right onit. No I guess not. Here's a letter my brotherwrote the day before he died.... No, there isn'troom. How can we live without our lives?How will we know it's us without our past?(Steinbeck 1939, pp. 117, 120)

The notion of the extended self suggests thatwe transcend the immediate confines of our bodiesby incorporating into our identities, objects fromour physical environment (Belk 1988). Thisconception implies that the self is spatially enlargedby such extensions; that our possessions make usbigger people. However, there is another dimensionin which self may be extended: the dimension oftime. For besides being deHned by our immediatecircumstances, we are defined by our pasts and ourfutures. The self may be temporally enlarged whenwe annoimce that we once completed a marathon inunder three hours or that we are studying to be adoctor. We also are temporally enlarged, in somecircles, by having a lineage that can be traced to theMayflower or having grandchildren named after us.And we are temporally enlarged by having visitedthe National Museum of American History or havingheirloom silverware that we plan to bequeath to ourchildren. Of the past and future directions in whichself may be extended, the present focus is primarilyon the past. Having an extensive or rich sense ofpast implies that we are able to clearly defineourselves and grotmd our identity in previouspersonal or group history.

Various forms of amnesia show what happensif instead we are able to think about ourselves onlyin the present. For instance, in a clinical case helabels "the lost mariner," Oliver Sacks (1985)reveals Jimmie G. who has no memory except forthe past few minutes and his Hrst 19 years up to1945 when he was serving in the U.S. Navy. Hethinks World War II has just ended and is baffled bythe gray hair he sees in the mino r. He meets hisdoctor anew each day and has no memory of priormeetings. He is intelligent and can carry on a game6 6 9

of checkers, but quickly gets lost in chess becausethe moves are too slow. When he meets hisbrother, Jimmie is baffled by his unaccountableaging. Without having any recent past, Jimmie haslost all sense of time, continuity with his past, andability to envision his future. He has, in Sacks'view, lost himself.Even those of us without amnesia lose or failto recall parts of our past. For this reason our lifehistory is often marked, commemorated, andannounced by objects (e.g., Olson 1985).Photographs, souvenirs, trophies, and more humbleeveryday objects act, in part, as repositories formemories and meanings in our lives. The presentpaper theoretically explores how such objects aid increating and perpetuating a sense of past in ourlives. The theoretical structure presented has beendeveloped with the aid of fieldwork from theConsimier Behavior Odyssey and several subsequentstudies (see Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf 1988,Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989, Kassarjian1987, Wallendorf and Belk 1987). Due to spaceconstraints however, the present paper presents onlythe relevant background literature rather than theresults of this Heldwork.

THE INDIVIDUAL REIFIED PASTSecurity Objects"Why," asks Tooley (1978, p. 176) "do wekeep one earring, three foreign coins (total value300), a jacket far too small that we will never wearagain?" The inunediate answer likely to suggestitself is that such objects are kept for sentimentalvalue which has something to do with preservingmemories of our pa st But why should we want topreserve our past? Why use possessions to preserveour past? And do such objects allow us to accuratelyrecall our pasts? Beyond the necessity of having asense past in order to achieve the integral sense ofidentity that Jimmie G. lacks, there are otherreasons that Western society deems a sense of pastto be important. We tend to be especially concemedwith having a past when our current identity hasbeen challenged, as may be the case with a divorce(Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981, p.212), a midlife identity crisis (Davis 1979, p. 40),feelings of inferiority (StiUinger 1980), states ofexcessive change and mobility (Klapp 1969), andlack of confidence in the future (Moriarty andMcGann 1983). For as McCracken (1988)eloquently notes:

Surrounded by our things, we are constantiyinstructed in who we are and what we aspireto . Surroimded by our things, we are rootedin and visually continuous with our pasts.Surrounded by our things, we are shelteredfrom the many forces that would deflect usinto new concepts, practices, andAdvances in Consum er ResearchVolume 17, 1990


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670 / The Role of Possessions In Constructing and Maintaining A Sense of Pastexperiences . Th ese forces include our ownacts of imagination, the constructions ofothers, the shock of personal tragedy, andsimp le forgetfulness. As Arendt hassugges ted, things are our ballast. Theystabilize us by reminding us of our past, bymaking this past a virtual, substantial part ofour present (p . 124).

The role of possessions in these cases is notonly to act as ballast to keep us stable, but to serveas familiar transitional objects that, like the child'ssecurity blanket, provide us a sense of support as weconfront an uncertain future. It is this apparentfunction that caused the boom in World War 11photography as servicemen were provided andsought to cany with them snapshots as memorabiliaof "the girl back home," their families, and theirlives in prior times of peace (King 1984). Theseobjects also served as hopeful reminders that waronly temporarily ruptures the "fiow" of time and thatsomeday "normal" peacetime, loved ones, andfamiliar activities would be regained and the river oftime returned to its proper chaimel.Pr e se r v ing Our PastObjects of the past are often intentionallyacquired and retained in order to remember pleasantor mom entous times in one's past. Souvenirs andmementos are intentionally selected to act astangible markers for retrospective memories in thefuture. Shopping sugg estions are now a staple oftravel guides and souvenirs commonly tangibilizethe tourist experienc e. They not only allow us toconfirm the experience to ourselves, but they mayallow us the conversational cue for telling othersabout it (Gordon 1986, Cybart 1988). Similarly,family photographs taken especially during seasonalholidays, rites of passage such as graduations,weddings, and anniversaries, vacation trips, and (ofchildren) during infancy, are meant to serve as editedmarkers and stimuli for future reflection,communication, and consolidation of sense of self.Chalfen (1987) calls the more than 11 billionamateur photos taken in the U.S. each year aninvestment in creating a memory bank. Hirsch(1981) notes that the development of amateurphotography provided nineteenth century poor andmiddle class families with a visual way to preservefamily heritage as could formerly be done only bythose rich enough to bequeath heirlooms and estatesto future generations of their fam ilies. With themobility of twentieth century North Americanfamilies, photographs now seem to serve rich andpoor alike in this respect.

But as objects for retrospective reflection,photographs (along with home movies andvideotapes) may act in a way that is in somerespects opposite to that of other possessions.Whereas possessions like furniture, houses, andclothing may act as unchanging objects providingthe security of the familiar in our lives, photographsremind us of who we once were in a way that invitescomparison and highlights how we have changed.

We may not be wholly different people, sincefeatures, expressions, and mannerisms tend to beretained, but the change is undeniable. Otherpossessions may mark the passage of time bybecoming stylistically outdated, physically wom,and sometimes altered by repainting, dying, orrearranging, but these changes do not as directlyimply that we have changed. The objects we seeeveryday tend to change slowly and imperceptibly.Only when we see these objects in old photographsor Arough the eyes of an infrequent visitor do wesee that they, like the people who are the normalfocus of our photographic records, have changed.Another exception may be objects uniquelyassociated with a past event. Athlet ic trophies,awards, wedding gifts, clothing bought for a specialoccasion, and other such time-marked objects (oftenassociated with rites of passage) are more likely toact as reminders of temporal discontinuity thancontinuity in our live s. But our favorite chair, ourfamiliar dinner dishes, and our favorite sweater (aslong as it is still serviceable and fits) all act asobjects of stability in our live s. They provide anembracing feeling of warmth that McCracken (1989)calls homeyness.N o s t a l g i a a n d M e m o r yThe objects that McCracken sees asparticipating in feelings of homeyness (e.g., crafts,knickloiacks, books, seasonal decorations, gifts) arealso likely to participate in feelings of nostalgia.Nostalgia has been described as a bittersweetemotion in which the past is viewed with bothsadness and longing (Da vis 1979, Starobinski 1966 ,Stewart 1984).Cogmtive Versus Emotional Memories. Thefirst important characteristic of nostalgia is that itinvolves an emotional rather than a cognitivememory process. It is a wistful mood that may beprompted by an object, a scene, a smell, or a strainof music. As Ruml (1946) reflects:

The nostalgic sentiments are less wellunderstood. Although abundantiy representedin literature and in art, they have found noappropriate place in social theory. Nos talgicsentiments being incommensurable in thehedonistic calculus, are regarded as somewhatremoved from the hard logic of nature andtouched by a bit of moonlight and summermadness (p. 8).Neisser (1982) suggests that another barrier tounderstanding emotional nostalgic memories is thatthe vast majority of research on memory has been inartificial contexts that may bear littie relation toremembering in natural contexts.Sacred Memories. A second importantcharacteristic of nostalgia, as suggested by recentnaturalistic studies, is that past times that arenostalgically recalled are sacred times (Belk,Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989). Esp ecially when theyare involuntarily remembered, these times aremysterious, powerful (kratophanous), unexpected


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Advances tn Consumer Research (Volume 17) I 671(hierophanous), mythical, and prompt feelings ofecstasy or fiow. These are also the elements thatseem to fascinate Proust (1981; originals 1913-1927) in his 3000+ page self refiective novel.Remembrance of Things Past, Rather than objectsof nostalgia serving as simple cues to propositionalmemories involving knowledge that somethingoccurred, these objects provoke rich texturalmemories involving knowledge of the experiencerecalled (Belk 1986 , Langer 1963). For Proust, thismystery and rich textural detail are clearly evident inthe three volumes of memories that well forth fromthe cup of tea and little Madeleine cakes which hismother served him (actually the mother of thenovel's Marcel) one day during his ill health:

I feel that there is much to be said for theCeltic belief that the souls of those whom wehave lost axe held captive in some inferiorbeing, in an animal, in a plant, in someinanimate object, and thus effectively lost tous until the day (which to many never comes)when we happen to pass by the tree or toobtain possession of the object which formstheir prison..And as soon as I had recognizedthe taste of the piece of madeleine soaked inher decoction of lime-blossom which my aimtused to give me (although I did not yet knowand must long postpone the discovery of whythis memory made me so happy) immediatelythe old grey house upon the street, where herroom was, rose up like a stage set to attachitself to the little pavilion opening on to thegarden which had been built out behindit...and with the house the town, frommorning to night and in all weathers, theSquare where I used to be sent before limch,the streets along which I used to run errands,the country roads we took when it was fine.And...so in that moment all the fiowers inour garden and in M. Swann's park, and thewater-lilies on the Vivone and the good folkof the village and their little dwellings andthe parish church and the whole of Combrayand its surroundings, taking shape andsolidity, sprang into being, town and gardensalike, from my cup of tea (1981, 1, pp. 47,5 1 ) .

With sacred nostalgic memories evoked by sacredpossessions, it is not so much that these objects"stand for" particular events evoked in documentaryfashion, as that they are the stimuli for an evolvingnetwork of vivid memories; that is, they "lead to"other memories in an interwoven net that grows richin associations, moods, and thoughts.

Imagining the Past. A third significantaspect of nostalgic memories is that, rich andevocative as they are, they are, like other memoriesof the past, imaginary rather than "real". As M eadobserves, "...the past (or sotne meaningful structureof the past) is as hypothetical as the future" (1932,p. 12; see also Mead 1929, Lynch 1972, Maines,Sugrue, and Katovich 1983). Mementos, souvenirs.

photographs, and other possessions that may evokethe past for us, are all dumb objects that provideonly mute and shapeless testimony that there was apast. Only when we interpret these objects do theyhave meaning. And like our selectivity in decidingwhich of these possessions we will save and treasure(Belk 1988), we also selectively interpret ourhypothetical past in a way that is most pertinent tous , just as we unavoidably do when we read fiction(Larsen and Seilman 1988). As w ith most fictionreading and all of our approaches to the sacred, wedwell on the nostalgic past for its own sake ratherthan for some utilitarian purpose (Lowenthal andPrince 1976). Just as Proust com es to realize that itis not the magic potion of the tea that contains hismemories, but rather is himself, we must realize thatour things are the incarnation of our experiencesonly to the extent that we can bring them to lifethrough the reflections and interpretations that theystimulate.

It is this imaginary character of our nostalgicmemories that allows us to use the past as a safehaven to which we may displace our hopes andideals (McCracken 1988 ). Our mythical images of agolden age of childhood, the good old days, or ourcarefree college years, when life was good and wewere our ideal selves, help explain our fondness foradult collections of childhood objects such as dolls,toys, comic books, and Teddy bears (Schlereth1985 ). It further accords with Kant's contention thatthe feeling of nostalgia is a longing for ourchildhood (1798, Starobinski 1966). And it alsoaccounts for what Tooley (1978) sees as the idealtreasure trove of personal objects:

...souvenirs and bottle caps and trophies andphotographs and baseball cards and sea shellsand coin collections-things that havesymbolic value in their own right (coins),things that have the capacity for stimulatingpleasant memories, and things that reinforcea treasured mythology of the self, things thatrevivify a former version of a self overlookedin the press of the daily and present self;things that recall a time of happinessobliterated by the weight of cunentunhappiness; things to be touched fondly,turned over musingly, returned to the box,which is in tum shoved back into storage (p.174) .Authenticity. One final significant aspect ofnostalgic memories may seem to contradict the

preceding one. Even though our nostalgic mem oriesare essentially un-real and imaginary rather thanobjective and inherent in the objects that inspirethem, we nevertheless insist upon the authenticityof these objects, and insist that unauthentic, faked,or forged objects cannot possibly contain thepowerful memories of "the real thing." Thisapparent contradiction is best understood in terms ofthe nature of the sacred. As M acCannell (1972 )argues, it is the very shallowness and artificiality ofour lives that causes us to seek the authentic.


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672 / The Role of Possessions In Constructing and Maintaining A Sense of PastRestated, it is the ordinary profane nature of ourlives that causes us to seek the sacred. Thisrestatement is supported by the (sacred)characteristics thought by Baugh (1988) to defineauthenticity: it manifests itself to us and createsepiphany (hierophany), it is able to transform theworld (kratophany), it is totally unique (singularity),and it causes us to suspend our perception of theeveryday world (transcendence). How ever, theadditional sacred element of contamination is theproperty most useful for understanding why we insistupon authentic objects from our pa st Beca use thesacred experience is thought to contaminate only theobjects that were present during its occurrence,inauthentic, faked, or forged objects lack sacredpower to carry our mem ories. A similar weddingring, a photograph of a similar family'sThanksgiving feast, or a car that is like the one wehad in college, may provoke a brief nostalgicflashback, but they are clearly inferior to and wouldhardly be traded for "the real thing." To cla im thatwe once met a person who looked just like WoodyAllen is to say much less than saying we once metthe real Woody Allen.

This desire for authenticity is time and culturespecific. Only in the past several hundred years hasWestern cultUTe come to revere the original andabhor the copy (Orvell 1989, Tdlling 1971). Therise of interest in this sort of authenticity appears tobe closely tied to the rise of individualism inWestern culture (Belk 1 984 , Handler 1986) . It isalso within this temporal and cultural frame thatsingularity has come to be regarded as a property ofthe sacred.A nt ique s and Old T hingsThe items considered to this point are thosethat are intimately connected to our personal past insom e way. The role of such objects in creating andmaintaining a sense of past is easier to appreciatethan the role of other old objects and antiques thathave not previously been a part of our personalpast. If these objects are heirlooms from ourfamily's past, they aid in aggregate identity asdiscuss ed in the next section. But if they are merelyold things, even if others consider them sacred orvaluable, how can they play a role in our own senseof past? To answer this question we must go beyondMcCracken's (1988) concept of displaced meaning,since rather than keeping the past at a safe distance,the collector of old things ("owner" seems toodispassion ate) seeks to bring it closer. A moreuseful perspective to keep in mind is the stipulationthat the past, and especially the nostalgic past, isimaginary. Beca use of this hypothetical quality, wemay seek to appropriate part of our identity fromobjects and time periods to which we have notpreviously been connected. By coming to knowthese objects and time periods we may come to feelwe have knowledge of what it was like to have beena part of them, li ie ir "otherness," presumablysuperior artistry, and survival in spite of fragility,make them more extraordinary and sacred thanobjects of the present As we insinuate ourselves

upon the life of such objects we extend our identityto encompass what we imagine their original era tohave been.Hillier (1981) speaks of collecting antiquesas an attempt at "conjuring up the past," based onthe hope that "a particular antique has absorbedsomething of an earlier time, something which wemay be able to distil from it" (pp. 71 , 78). In thissense the antique acts as a fetish object or talisman.Some antique collectors, in an apparently projectiveattempt to establish an even closer connection tothese objects, even suggest that an antique "speaks"to them because they have had some connectionwith it in a former life (Cherry 1989).

THE A GGR EGA TE R EIFIED PA S TSelf is comprised not only of our individualidentities, but also of more aggregate levels such asfamily, work organization, city, and nation (Belk1988). What applies at the individual level, alsoapplies at these aggregate leve l. Americans whoonce prided themselves on being unencumbered bythe past have become as active as anyone inenslurining their material past in museums, archives,and monum ents. The se things offer a proof that thepast was real and remains meaningful:

Americans must not dismiss the endlessviewing of Lenin's refrigerated body and thepreservation of the bones of saints as aliensuperstitions. The se, like Do lly Madison'sgown, Benjamin Friuiklin's printing press,and George Washington's uniform, are morethan curiosities. They provide dire ct three-dimensional evidence of individuals whootherwise exist only as abstractions (Hindle1978, p. 6).N at iona l , R e g iona l , and L oc a lP o s s e s s i o n sJust as individual antique collectors mayappropriate senses of pasts in which they have notdirectly participated, nations may also try toappropriate pasts that are not their own. This m aybe done by imitation as with classical architecture inpublic buildings and classical poses and clothing onpublic sutues, or it may be done more directly byacquiring the art and artifacts of another culture. Th emore direct appropriation may involve classicalworks like the Elgin Marbles in the British Museumor "primitive" works like the anthropologicalartifacts in the Smithsonian collection (Cole, 1985,Meyer 1973). Whereas the acquisition of theclassical works attempts, like antique collection, toestablish a lineage to the past and appropriate itsimagined glories, the acquisition of "primitive"works is more an attempt to demonstrate thesuperiority of the acquiring nation (Chamberlin1979). From the point of view of the nation wh oseheritage has been appropriated however, thesetransfers often amount to a theft of nationalselfhood. Repatriation attempts, such as Greece'sclaim on the Elgin Marbles and Nigeria's claim onthe Ashanti regalia also held by the British Museum,


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Advances tn Consumer Research (Volume 17) I 673are not often successful however, despite argumentssuch as Nigeria's that:

These antiquities are the only authenticobjects which illustrate and illuminate thecourse of our developm ent. This is vital tous as a people, as it enables us to establishour identity, and hence restores our dignity inthe community of nations (Chamberlin 1979,p. 113).'The same concem with magic, sacredness, andauthenticity that we invoke in personal possessionsis also an important part of aggregate national,regional, and local posse ssions. Walter (1988)depicts a cup that seems suitable for coffee or teaand notes that it appears boring and possessed oflow energy, until it's heritage is revealed and ourperceptions change:

However, when we leam that the cup is madeof amber and...may be as old as 1500 B. C ,the energy changes. W e marvel that theshape of the humble teacup claims suchremote antiquity, but the fabric of the cupevokes even more wonder than the form.Amber, to prehistoric folk, was a sacredsubstance. It was valued as highly as gold(p . 73) .As Stewart (1984) explains, part of this newreverence is because we see the modem as cold andsterile while the antique is warm and exotic. But apart of the status of antiquities housed in museums isdue to the authentication and sacralization that takesplace in transferring these objects to the museum.Not only is the museum a sacred temple of modemsociety (Rheims 1961), but Sacralization is aided byremoving the object from ordinary use andtransferring it to the context of other sacred objects(Belk, et al. 1988).

Over the "life" of a significant object, anumber of sacred and profane transformations maytake place before it reaches a museum, as Fisher(1975) illustrates with a hypothetical warrior'ssword. As an object that the warrior vie ws as both asign of social status and a key instrument ofsurvival, the sword may obtain personal sacredstatus for him. Upon his death if the sword does notbecome a profane spoil of war, the society's priestsmay obtain it as a sacred symbol of the spirit of thewarrior. When the society fa lls and the swordbecomes looted wealth, it enters the profane world.And when anthropologists finally obtain the objectand transfer it to a museum, it is once again a sacredobject in still another system of meaning. Wemight also note that in each step in this socialbiography of the sword it becomes increasinglyalienated from its original context, being firstiqjpropriated by a more aggregate local society andultimately by a totally foreign society.

While archaeological, anthropological, andhistorical museums are those that may seem mostrelevant to collecting objects that provide an

aggregate sense of past, natural history museums, artmuseums, and museums of science and industryperform similar functions. And museum s are not theonly repositories of sense of past at the localthrough national levels of self. Data collection ineconomics, meteorology, popular culture studies, anda variety of other disciplines also archive our past.So do libraries, historical societies, and cemeterieswhich now mark permanent graves rather thanrecycling the land for other burials. As Shapiro(1985) documents, the impetus for the developmentof each of these repositories occurred during die mid-nineteenth century in the U.S. . Prior to this time,the view of history seems to have been less linearand more cyclical. This difference is seen moreclearly however in the contrast of present view ofusing the past to construct desired identities versusthe medieval European view of a changeless socialorder and an irrevocable past (Mead 19 29). Then,and in preceding civilizations, preserving the pastin public institutions was not encountered(Lowenthal 1985, p. 365).An aggregate sense of past implies acollective memory (Halbwachs 1950). There issome evidence that the salient past differs markedlyby generation (Schuman and Scott 1989 ). Theperiod of late adolescence and early adulthood whenadult identity is crystallizing is an especiallyprominent source of generational mem ories. Thisseems to account for the different musicalpreferences of different generations (Holbrook andSchindler 1989) and the different eras of collectiblesprefened by those who have reached midlife (Davis1979). Co llectiv e memory is thus generation-specific.

F a m i l y H e i r l o o m sUnlike anonymous antiques, monuments,landmarlcs, and museum artifacts, family heirloomshave been directiy experienced by individuals andfamilies during their past. Such heirlooms are notuniversal in a society, but are restricted to highersocial classes. These classes are more likely tohave furnishings, jewelry, silver, collectibles,paintings, objects d'art, and even articles ofclothing to pass along (Bossard and Boll 1950),although middle class families who have remained inone place over several generations may also havesome heirlooms (McCracken 1988, chapter 3). U.S .blacks who are descended from former slave familiesmay have oral traditions, but have been barred frommultigeneration material cultures (Haley 1976).Although it is most common to think of traditionalpeoples as possessing only oral heritage (e.g.,Bateson 1958), there is also a material heritage ingroups like the Aranda of Australia (Strethlow1947). In fact among the Northem Aranda, tjurungaobjects are thought to be the embodiment ofancestors and are hoarded as most treasuredposse ss ions .

Having family heirlooms, collections, orother significant possessions that children orgrandchildren are willing to take over can provide asense of familial self continuity that extends beyond


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674 / The Role of Possessions In Constructing and Maintaining A Sense of Pastdeath. Barthes (19 84) reflects after his mother'sdeadi that he "finds" her in an ivory powder box, acut-crystal flagon, a low chair, raffia panels, and thelarge bags she loved. Even when families do notpass heirlooms to succeeding generations, thecontinued existence of childhood home and otherimportant objects may provide a sense of continuityor even immortality. Wh en these objects are insteaddestroyed, we lose a part of our past, a part of ourse lves:

A picture of Barney's childhood home hungjust inside the entrance of his own home.The childhood home had been deeded to hisfather when his father was a child. Thoughthe house and the land had long since beensold outside the family, Bamey expresseddismay when he told me of the experience ofdriving by some years before and finding it"wiped out" Hisvoice quavered and tearscame to his eyes as he told me this story.The dam thing, last time I was up there,they even stripped the house out ofthere. The old home, well, I thought thething would stand forever. That's whathappens to everything; nothing comesof nothing anymore (Boschetti 1986,p.4 2 ) .

CONCLUSIONSPrevious studies of time in consumer researchhave ignored the role of possessions in creating andmaintaining a sense of past. A sense of past isessential to a sense of self. The self extends notonly into the present material environment, butextends forward and backward in time. Possessionscan be a rich repository of our past and act asstimuli for intentional as well as unintentionalrecollections. While few of us undertake ascomprehensive a life history review as Proust, ourmemories constitute our lives; they are us. Wefervently believe that our past is accumulatedsomewhere among the material artifacts our liveshave touched~in our homes, our museums, and ourcities. And we hope that if these objects can onlybe made to reveal their secrets, they will reveal themeanings and mystery of ourselves and our l ives.

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Advances In Consume r R esearch (Volume 17) I 67 5HiUier, Bevis (1981), "Why Do We CollectAntiques?," in Our Pasts Before Us: Why Do WeSave It?, David Lowenthal and Marcus Binney,eds . , London: Temp le Smith, 70-82. iHindle, Brooke (1978), "How Much is a Piece of theTrue Cross Worth?," Material Culture and theStudy of American Life, Ian Quimby, ed.. NewYork: W. W . Norton, 5-20.Hirsch, Julia (1981), Fanuly Photographs: Content,Meaning and Effect, New York: OxfordUniversi ty Press .Holbrook, Morris and Robert M. Schindler (1989),"Some Exploratory Findings on the Developmentof Musical Tastes," Journal of ConsumerResearch, 16 (June), 119-124.Kant, Immanuel (1798), Anthropologie inPragmatisher Hinsicht, LXXXn., Kfiningsberg:F . Nicolovins .Kassarjian, Harold (1987), "How We Spent OurSumm er Vacation: A Preliminary Report on the1986 Consumer Behavior Odyssey," Advances inConsumer Research, Vol. 14, Melanie Wallendorfand Paul Anderson, eds, Provo, UT: Association

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676 / The Role of Possessions In Constructing and Matntatntng A Sense of PastTooley, Kay M. (1978), "The Remembrance ofThings Past: On the Collection and Recollectionof Ingredients Useful in the Treatment ofDisorders Resulting from Unhappiness,Rootlessness, and the Fear of TlUngs to Come,"American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 48, 174-1 8 2 .Trilling, Lionel (1971), Sincerity and Authenticity,Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.Wallendorf, Melanie and Russell W. Belk (1987),"Deep Meaning in Possessions: QualitativeResearch from Th e Consumer Behavior Odyssey,"video distributed by Marketing Science Institute,Cambridge, MA.Walter, Eugene V. (1988), Placeways: A Theory ofthe Human Environment, Chapel Hill, NC:University of North Carolina Press.


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