Andrew Causey
Department of Liberal Education
Columbia College Chicago
May 2005

(NB: this very short paper was given at a panel presentation at the Chicago Cultural Center as a part of the Intersections series [http://www.intersections.colum.edu/cultural.html]; to encourage attendees to participate creatively with the topics discussed, a table adjacent to the speakers was piled with a jumble of various found items for them to take home and reuse.)

"But is it Clean?": Notions of Contamination
in Second Hand Sales

or

"Hold It! Wait!": Notions of Infringement and
Possession in Second Hand Sales

Introduction
I am interested in objects in the human world that enter into our social interactions first with some purpose or intent, but that then become somehow severed from their meanings and values. Oftentimes, these objects find their way into the formal dumps for cultural waste, places like refuse bins, landfills, or (if we are lucky) recycling centers. Other times, these things become available for re-use, either as heirlooms or gifts, or as the jetsam and flotsam found in second-hand marketplaces like garage sales and thrift stores.

What fascinates me about these latter objects, the ones anonymously available for re-use, is that once separated from their original meanings and values (the stories of who made them, how they got from here to there, why they went out of date, when they got chipped or broken then repaired), they exist in a kind of limbo. This limbo, a state of being when their value might be suggested by price or narrative, is a time when they are neither here nor there: they are neither fully meaningful, nor entirely meaningless. Anthropologists sometimes describe a person who is in the midst of a ritual process as being "liminal" a bride waiting to march up the aisle is neither "un-married" nor "married," she is in-between: "liminal." Similarly, the objects available for re-use are liminal objects; they are objects with potential, but are just as likely to go to the landfill as they are to be recognized and valued.

The Survey
When I first started thinking about what aspect of my preliminary research on second hand sales would be most interesting for this audience to hear about, I immediately thought about notions of cleanliness. After all, on a survey I gave, 87% of the 54 people who responded said they would not buy certain items because they felt they were "not clean." Choosing from among a wide variety of cast-offs listed on the survey, almost 60% of these people indicated that they would never buy underwear 18% said they would never buy make-up, and 13% said they would never buy wigs. All because these things were felt to be "unclean." Some people, when given the chance, noted that they might take the items (free) if they "knew for certain they could clean them thoroughly."

When I first started to think about presenting information about how people think about second hand sales, I thought it would be fascinating to tell you that there might be some connection between this overwhelming concern with "cleanliness" and respondents' motivations to shop in these venues. I thought I would say to you, "Consider this, 59% of the people who answered said they were attracted to second-hand sales because of the adventure of it... could there be some relationship between their desire for adventure and their fear of the unclean?"

I was giving in to anxiety as I prepared my presentation, and awoke one morning thinking, "Wait! Hold it!" I was convinced I must change my focus somehow.  "WAIT! HOLD IT!"

Possession and Infringement
Part of my second-hand research has been focused on the survey I mentioned above. And it was this data that I was to have introduced to you tonight. But another aspect of my research is more ethnographic... more concerned with participating and observing acts of second-hand buying and selling in action. For this, I have lurked in thrift stores and garage sales, listening, watching, considering - sometimes as a buyer, and sometimes as a seller, and it was about this side of the research that I shouted to myself "Wait! Hold it!" and which I feel more compelled to talk to you about tonight.

What I want to say tonight has to do with issues of "possession" and "infringement" of both space and objects; that is, issues that reflect desires to acquire and to monitor personal boundaries. My attention to these actions happened almost by chance: I was interested in how people noticed or developed value for objects when shopping, but because I am slightly hard of hearing, I had to move fairly close in to hear what they were saying at garage sales, to their compatriots or to themselves. In time, I began to see a pattern in shoppers' reactions to my moves, for as I closed in, they would lift objects of interest, but not put them back down, thinking to themselves perhaps, "Waaaaait... Hold it. Just hold it." As I stood close, trying to hear them saying such things as, "I could put that in the corner over by the table, you know the one, the dark one with the carved box on it? Well, I could put it right near that," and "Can't you just see this lampshade painted with Chinese characters? I could practice my Chinese and the lamp would look great," they would also be lifting and carrying the items, juggling them with the other items they might get. "Waaaaait... Hold it... hold it." My close proximity would usually quiet their voices, to my frustration, and as I backed nonchalantly away, I would see them take a moment to step aside, to mentally judge the items in their arms: to look at them critically, and to finally replace those they realized they didn't actually need or want.

I observed this action happen enough times that a pattern emerged, this pattern of "wait, hold it," one that indicated to me that my creeping presence seemed to inspire in the shoppers worries that this man--"I don't know why he has to stand so close to me... " - is not just invading their personal space in a public arena (we all deal with that well enough in places like the commuter trains and buses), but is entering a decision-making space in a market setting. These are concerns that in some cases further seemed to precipitate senses of fear or annoyance that this man, who is standing entirely too close, might be trying to get my things! Hold them, just wait and hold them.

One of the important things I learned from the survey, as I mentioned before, is that many people see the act of second-hand shopping as being connected with "adventure." People say things about the "hunt" for "treasures" and the "excitement" of finding something "cool" or "unexpected." What I see when participating in the marketplaces is that these "unknown" or "unexpected" things are not immediately recognized by many people, and for this reason, the threats to their emerging understanding and judgment (the infringement to mental and physical space) is circumvented by becoming intensely proactive in their physical possession of items. The adventure of finding the treasure or the unexpected cannot happen if someone else nabs the object you were cautiously eyeing from afar, for in these cases, where items are odd cast-offs or the dross of someone else's life, the objects are unusual, if not also rare or unique. The shoppers solve this problem by temporarily hoarding them, and this carrying around of ANYthing that might be of interest, until such time as there is a serene moment to engage with the object and consider how it might fit in with life outside the marketplace, or to consider if the thing has real "worth," or how it might be made to become meaningful, is a common sight recognized by any who frequent such venues.

Conclusion
As we end our evening of talk on the importance of re-use in our lives, I would like to invite you to come forward to the table and consider the items here. Here is a wide variety of items, things which you yourself might have thought about throwing away earlier today. How might you reconsider the assortment of found things on the table, these "liminal" or "in-between" items? How might you re-use them in your life? What draws you to one particular item?

As you select an item to take home with you for future re-use, please talk to us about your thoughts and plans. We will have cameras and tape recorders ready to document your thoughts.