On Collecting
Subtitle: An Investigation into Collecting in the European Tradition (Collecting Cultures)
Publisher: Routledge
Published: June 21, 1999
Language: eng
Number of pages: 440
ISBN-13: 9780415075619
First sentence: This book is about the European face of that curious human activity which we call collecting, and which, as a curtain-raiser, may be described as the gathering together and setting aside of selected objects.
Description: About one in three people in North America and Europe collects something. Collecting is clearly an important social phenomenon and yet surprisingly little is known about how and why we collect. On Collecting explores the nature of collecting both in Europe and among people living within the European tradition elsewhere.

The way people collect tells us about their notions of themselves and others, about their relationship to objects, and helps us understand people as consumers. Susan Pearce addresses many of the important issues surrounding the practice of collecting. She considers how European collecting practice is part of an essentially European mentality, how collected objects have cultural value and how the individuals who collect them help to affect the society they live in.