A pack of cigarettes, a carbon emissions permit and a carved stone twice the height of a human may seem to have little in common, but they do share one feature: They have all been used as currency. Anthropologists’ Money Bag, an exhibition currently on view at Academia Sinica’s Museum of the Institute of Ethnology, showcases these and other currencies from across cultures and historical periods.
Curated by Guo Pei-yi (郭佩宜), an associate research fellow, the exhibition aims to explore the varied forms and functions currency can take.
“Currency in practice is continually undergoing a dynamic negotiation process,” states a quote on one wall.
Photo: Shereen Lee, Taipei Times
The exhibition consists of five sections: monies of the world, how money acquires its value, money and the state, what happens when different currencies meet and monies of the new century.
The exhibition is located in a small, raised, brightly lit area set apart from the museum’s main rooms, creating a cozy atmosphere that contrasts sharply with the more serious long-term exhibitions. The numerous colorful interactive elements — doors set in the wall to open and shut or a container filled with cardboard cutouts of different objects used as currency around the world — ensure that the exhibition is accessible for people of all ages.
Anthropologists’ Money Bag’s playfulness does not detract from its academic value, however, and the provided “Exhibition Concepts” prompt visitors to ponder complex questions, such as: “What are the symbolic and political meanings of currency?” and “How do systems of currency impact our social life?”
The displays are effectively designed to expand visitors’ conceptions of what currency can be, do and mean, with an emphasis on breadth over depth.
CURRENCY AND RITUAL
Particularly thought-provoking are the explanations of currency’s use in ritual. One portion concerns bridewealth, a payment presented by the bride’s family to that of the groom, often in a special currency; another discusses the tradition of burning “spirit money” at funerals.
Ultimately, visitors come away from the exhibition understanding that money is a tool different cultures adapt to different ends to suit their needs — whether Solomon Islanders trading cowrie shells or American prison gangs exchanging instant noodles.
The Anthropologists’ Money Bag also seeks the public’s input on how they conceptualize money: A wall covered with Post-it notes responding to the statement, “Imagine there’s no money,” is as compelling as the more formal displays. Here, the exhibition’s pragmatic and objective view of currency gives way to more emotional perspectives.
“No currency is very scary, but no goods are even scarier,” reads one. “Classless society,” “Happy,” and “World peace!” all make an appearance. “Impossible” occurs twice, once in English, and once in Mandarin.
The Post-it notes demonstrate that a more extensive examination of systems of exchange that are not reliant on currencies, such as gift economies or barter systems, would have been a helpful addition, demonstrating that a world without money would not necessarily mean a world without property ownership or trade, nor would it be a utopia.
While the exhibition provides an interesting and informative dive into currency’s relationship with state legitimacy and autonomy, it lacks a significant consideration of the economic and labor systems (sometimes forced) facilitated or necessitated by various currency systems.
Nevertheless, the exhibition succeeds at creatively bringing a scholarly topic to life in an easily digestible manner. The wide range of cultures it manages to pack into such a limited amount of space is admirable, and the questions it raises are certainly worth contemplating. Jumping from 19th century western Africa to present-day Greece and back again, Anthropologists’ Money Bag criss-crosses the globe to offer a well-organized and insightful — if brief — look at an everyday and ubiquitous object.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and