Tag Archives: Material Culture

Stickers on my Computer

Context

“When I was 8 I loved collecting stickers. I would pay quarters at pizza restaurants to collect the random stickers and get sticker books. When I got older, I saw how popular it was for people to put stickers on their water bottles and binders. I was so happy to finally use my stickers, so I had the sticker-iest water bottle and binder. This childish thing I did seemed like a stupid phase, but it stuck with me as I grew. They were meaningless and fun until I got to high school.”

Text

“I was more mature in high school, in pursuit of meaning in life, and most importantly, I got a computer. I began to put stickers on the laptop signifying places I’ve been, passions I’ve had, or people I was close to. Some of these stickers have been transferred from my water bottle, taped over and over again because it keeps falling off. My favorite is a picture of Justin Bieber. Not because I love Justin, but becuase my little brother and I had a running joke that we were his biggest fans. The sticker reminds me of him now that I’m in college. Eventually, the computer will die, but the memories won’t. I’m keeping it to show my kids, and explain what I was like when I was their age through my favorite childhood accessory: my stickers.”

Analysis

The meaning that the simplest objects can have for different individuals show a key trait of typical folklore. In folklore, the piece of lore being shared is often underappreciated or meaningless to those outside of the folk group. Thus, this personal connection to different things such as stickers shows how folklore is so important in our lives. For my friend, his computer stickers carry memories of childhood and family giving his computer a piece of his identity. In contrast, I do not hold the same heartfelt connection to stickers which is why my laptop is bare. Still, I can appreciate his lore and pass it on to others who too like sticker decorations. As we discussed, material culture is a prominent form of folklore because it acts as a reminder of important things in one’s life. Through the stickers he is reminded of his family and childhood making a laptop into folk art that tells stories of his life.

Handmade Envelop Bookmark

Age: 20s

Text:

Context:

Informant-The significance of my envelop bookmark was to encourage me to read since I would decorate them to match the book cover and would leave my personal reviews in them!

Analysis:

The informant spoke to me about the evolution of their bookmarks, how they shared them with friends, and customized them over time. Their process of creating them and showing others how to make them reminded me of origami projects teachers would teach young children, or kids showing each other how to make cootie catchers or paper airplanes in their downtime, during recess, or at camp. Crafts such as these are a way of entertaining oneself with few resources. This craft, in particular, enhanced the activity of reading. These examples of material culture give us insight into what crafts children around the world filled their free time with!

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Relic Changing Colors

Text:

“It all started about 15 years ago. I had a huge devotion to St. Thérèse, and I feel that she’s brought me many blessings in my life, so we were going as a family to France, to Paris for a week, and I realized that St. Thérèse… town where she grew up in was Lisieux, France. So I had an original relic, which is a piece of her bone, which is very rare to get. And that’s called a first-degree relic. I then purchased 25 third-degree relics. A third-degree relic is something that was touched a first-degree relic. So it touched a piece of the bone, the hair, so forth, like that. So I bought 25 of those, and my husband was on the parish council and had a meeting with the priest before we left, so I said, take these 25 with you and have them blessed before we go over to France.

He said, This is ridiculous. This is a business meeting. That would be embarrassing to come in with these, uh, medals. I said, no it’s not. The medal is also a St. Thérèse on one side, and the other side is all red. It’s got a little red circle. So, I said, take these. I said, if you don’t take them, it’s gonna look bad because I already told the priest about them. So he gets them blessed.

I got a rental car, and I said, I’m going to Lisieux. So we go, and we had a private tour, and I took her original relic and put it on the floor of where she lived in this convent. My husband and I had the original. Then we went over to her body, and my one daughter came away from the body, and she said, “Oh my gosh, my, my relic turned white.” And I was like, gosh, that’s strange. We don’t really think anything of it. We had the entire basilica to ourselves.

A neighborhood child had cancer, so I had told the mom I would light a candle in the basilica of St. Thérèse Lisieux for her daughter. So, me and my daughter are over lighting a candle, and my husband is sitting in a pew praying in the front of the church. And as we’re sitting there, lighting the candle, one by one before us, they all started, 16 out of the 25, turned from red to white. And they were just one at a time, and we are just sitting there watching this in awe. So I said to my daughter, go get your father. He comes over. He sees these relics. And he is like, “oh my god”, we didn’t even know what to do.

There was a thing of holy wood. We took all the relics and we threw them in there because, honestly, I was a little scared and overwhelmed, and my daughter was kind of in shock. No one knew what to say. We were all just super quiet. And at the end of it, we took them all out, we dried them, the red ones were still red, the white ones had stayed white. So the, the crazy thing is afterwards, my husband said, I’m not gonna tell anyone this, ’cause we’re gonna look like crazy people. And I said, “well, we do have the before and after, and all of us witnessed it.”

So we do tell people the story now. And since then, as people have gotten ill and things like that, we have given out several of them. Each of the kids have one left. I don’t have that many left because people have been buried with them, or people have come to me and asked for them. I still have my original one, and when someone, if I have a friend who has, like, you know, serious illness or whatever, they usually take it with them to doctors’ appointments and things like that. But, so that is, um, my story of my relics turning, and I think our whole family has a beautiful devotion to St. Thérèse now. My one daughter carries around a little, tiny St. Thérèse statue. It’s maybe two inches high.

Context:

The informant is a middle aged white woman from Philadelphia. She recounts a family trip to the Basilica of Saint Thérèse, a major Catholic pilgrimage site associated with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Before the trip, the family had small medals (treated as relics) blessed by a priest. While visiting the convent and basilica, they prayed, placed the relics near the saint’s body, and lit a candle for a sick child back home. During this time, several of the red-colored relics unexpectedly turned white in front of them. In Catholic culture, relics are sacred objects connected to saints. Pilgrimage sites are often associated with miracles or unexplained phenomena, as is her tomb. The experience was emotional and overwhelming, and the family later shared the relics with others, especially those who were ill.

Analysis:

This is an example of material folklore and religious folk belief centered on miracles. The relics act as physical objects believed to carry spiritual power, and the color change is interpreted as a sign of divine presence or intervention. The event reinforces the family’s faith and deepens their devotion to the saint. It also shows how personal experiences at pilgrimage sites can become meaningful stories that are retold, especially when tied to healing.

The Hmong Flower Cloth

AZ: My mother makes these embroidered cloths called pajamas Ntaub. She says the patterns aren’t just decorations, they are codes. Certain zig zags represent mountains we crossed, and the little red squares are the seeds of our future. If you sew a bird, it means you are sending a message to someone who has passed away.

Contact: The informant is a classmate, and her mother immigrated here from Laos. The conversation was sparked when I saw a Hmong cloth pinned up on her wall in her room. She then described the cloth as a living history book, that functions as a way to maintain her cultural heritage in a country that often forgets Hmong history.

Analysis: This is a sophisticated example of material culture. Unlike vernacular folklore, this is a visual piece of folk communication where history is encoded into visual objects. From a socio political perspective, the folklore responded to the displacement of the hong people. When written language was suppressed or lost, the folk art became the primary archive of the communities journey. This reflects the rubrics focus on historical values, and the cloth is not just an aesthetic object but a tool for cultural survival and vernacular storytelling.

Paper Hearts

Context: The informant learned this art form of paper folding from an elementary school teacher around Valentine’s Day. They were encouraged to fold them and give them to people in their class. However, the informant and her friends continued to make these throughout school and would give them to each other with messages as she got older. 

Analysis: What’s interesting is how the practice of making the paper changes within one person. Initially, it’s a structured activity, everyone learns the same folding technique, and is encouraged to give hearts to classmates. This reflects a kind of guided folk practice, where authority (the teacher) transmits a tradition tied to a holiday (Valentine’s Day). 

After the initial introduction and purpose, it becomes more personal. The informant continues making paper hearts outside of that original setting, which shifts the practice into a more organic tradition. This expands it from being just about Valentine’s Day to being a tradition among friends. 

I also would view this as a form of gift exchange ritual. Even though the object is small and made from inexpensive materials, its value comes from the time, effort, and intention behind it.