How many objects are there in our homes? From furniture and appliances to kitchenware, clothing, cosmetics, books, stationery and household goods, the number is beyond counting. According to one survey, the average American household contains as many as 300,000 objects. We have truly entered an age of "object excess."
The author, an archaeologist and anthropologist, traces how the objects humans have made — from Stone Age knives to today's artificial intelligence (AI) — have shaped the trajectory of human evolution. His fresh interpretation of human history through the lens of objects began with a question from his sister: "Why do we have so many things?" To find an answer, the author crossed disciplines including history, psychology, archaeology, engineering and philosophy, and interviewed numerous experts. Through this, he traces how humanity arrived at a world where people both need objects and suffer because of them.
According to the author, the first object humans used was a split stone that Australopithecus, an ancestor of humankind, used to cut meat 3.39 million years ago. This first tool played a crucial role in human evolution. When early humans used stone tools to cut raw meat into small pieces, digestion improved and they could absorb more energy. As a result, brain size grew dramatically. Australopithecus had a brain capacity of 400 cubic centimeters, while modern Homo sapiens have a brain capacity of 1,400 cubic centimeters — more than three times larger. As the brain grew larger and smarter, the ability to make better tools also developed. The author describes this toolmaking as the first leap of objects.
The second leap of objects is the assigning of meaning to them. The author explains that objects evolved beyond mere tools needed for daily life into symbols capable of holding all manner of meaning — beauty, faith, love and mourning. He cites art, religion and money as examples of such objects. While religion may be thought of as immaterial, its practice and spread require material things such as religious statues, altars and offerings. Buddhism, in fact, spread through the "movement of material things" such as Buddha statues and ritual objects. Buddha statues were made, appreciated and loved, and only then did people come to believe in Buddhist scriptures.
Modern people's love of luxury goods was also cited as an example of finding meaning in objects. The objects we own and use become "signals" that project an individual's identity outward. The author notes, "Carrying an extremely expensive Louis Vuitton wallet sends the signal that you are wealthy," adding, "By contrast, an antique wallet handed down from a grandmother sends little signal to others, no matter how much the owner cherishes it." According to research, consumers using Victoria's Secret shopping bags were found to feel more feminine, more alluring and more beautiful.
The third leap of objects is mass production through the Industrial Revolution. In an age of object overabundance, companies had to create not only products but also the desire for those products. The economist John Kenneth Galbraith named this the "dependence effect" — the idea that in an affluent society, consumption is driven not by actual need but by producers' advertising and promotion. Galbraith said, "The more wants that are satisfied, the more new wants are born."
An age overflowing with objects is no longer a blessing. The economic inequality caused by extreme consumption, wars over resources, environmental pollution and climate change all harm both humans and the planet. The author says we must therefore prepare for a fourth leap that changes our 3.3 million-year relationship with objects. He argues in particular that we must break free from an object-centered life through minimalism and reduced consumption. He introduces a consumption-restraint project he attempted with his family in 2021. Each family member promised to buy only five objects, beyond necessities, over the course of a year. The author's daughter joined the "year of slow buying" to protect the environment, and his wife to live more mindfully.
If objects evolved humanity in the past, the author stresses that the wisdom to reduce them is now needed for humanity's future. This book prompts modern people — who habitually browse online shopping sites today wondering what to buy — to reflect on the meaning of objects.
456 pages, 27,000 won.
