BP #5/6

Title: Social Theory: The Multicultural, Global, and Classical Readings (5th Edition)

Artist: Edited by Charles Lemert 

Date: 2013

Geography/Culture: Global/Muticultural (specifically, the oppressed)

Medium: Paper, Ink

Dimensions: 6 x 9 x 1.5 inches

Christians have the Bible. Muslims have the القرآن‎ (Qu’ran/Koran). And I… have my Social Theory book. Its origin is a certain publishing company, but its roots stem from the brilliant-beyond-comprehension and complex minds of social theorists. I use this book, primarily, to soothe my sporadic animosity towards the ever-self-destructive world we live in. Though, it is also a great tool for giving me a glimpse of what influential individuals such as Karl Marx, W. E. B. DuBois, and Emile Durkheim was like since the text provides each theorist’s background to give readers some context.

I picked this object because it is, surprisingly, representative of different aspects of my life. Firstly, it represents my experience as an individual who has been migrating for all of her life. I was born and raised in Southern Philippines and when I lived there, I moved three times. Then, when I was nine years old, I moved to Florida and lived there for about a year. After that, I moved to The Bronx and moved three more times around the borough. I am now currently residing in my fourth abode. This book represents all of that because I noticed that the only objects that I kept throughout all of my moves were my pieces of literature. And although I haven’t had this book since I was a child, it is the book I am choosing to represent all of the books I have carried with me all along my journey to every new place I occupy. Secondly, this book symbolizes my lifework and the individuals whose footsteps I am following in. Although I am reminded everyday of the blatant cruelty and ignorance that exists, this book makes me have faith in the human race because of all the work that my predecessors have already done and the work I, and my fellow social justice activists, still have to do. In addition, I am humbled through this piece of literature by the amount of knowledge it contains and how much of the broken world can be patched up simply through the words in this book. Thus, I chose this object for its educational and emotional value.

In John Cotton Dana’s essay, he mentions of experts in the art world “They become lost in working out their idea of a museum and forget their public.” I believe this book belongs in a museum for the ample amount of various schools of thought it touches upon and for the light it can shed on significant issues that are as relevant today as it has been since mankind’s history (colonization, race, biology, gender, etc.). However, folks in the art world may not hold my belief to be true simply because it is not rare and is not high-priced since copies of it can be obtained on any site that sells books. Though, Dana addresses exactly this issue. This book does indeed belong in a museum for the many myriad of identities it represents and those identities are what specific communities are made up of.