University students are surprised to discover that tourists buy souvenirs to remind them of places they've been

The word "souvenir" is a French word, a reflexive verb (se souvenir de) meaning "to remember." Apparently, University of Alberta human ecology students were unaware of this. As reported by Marta Gold in the Edmonton Journal, April 8, 2012:

EDMONTON - Nothing says “souvenir” like an I-‘heart’-NY T-shirt or a tiny replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Whether you think of them as tacky trinkets or treasured mementos, they indisputably make us think of faraway places and vacation experiences.

A new exhibit at the University of Alberta explores these ideas and the holiday souvenirs that inspire them in a show called “Greetings From ….”

Compiled by fourth-year human ecology students, the keepsakes were gathered from the department’s clothing-and-textiles collection as well as from students and staff.

The items range from the simple and iconic — tourist T-shirts and models of international landmarks — to the handmade and intricate, such as a mask from Venice and a wall hanging from Egypt.

Some are created from indigenous materials by local craftspeople, such as the African coasters carved out of tree bark, while others are cheap imports hawked to tourists, such as the dashboard hula girl from Hawaii.

But interestingly, the cost or quality of the memento has little bearing on its value to the owner, says Megan Strickfaden, the U of A professor who taught the students in a class on material culture in the home and the community.

“It’s really more about the connection they make with those objects.”

That was among the discoveries students made through the project, which required each of them to write a proposal and then vote on a favourite for the class project.

The theme they chose was submitted by student Holly Postma-Strand, who suggested focusing on travel souvenirs – “the kinds of objects people collect, why they collect those objects and how they are important to individuals,” Strickfaden says.

Souvenirs are particularly interesting because of the “dual conversation” they create, she says.

They’re made or imported to represent a particular city or country, but they have a whole other meaning and significance to the visitors who then buy them — usually, as a reminder of their holiday.

Even though the small Eiffel Tower was likely produced in China and has little connection to anything truly Parisien, to the person who buys it, it represents their actual experience, Strickfaden says.

“No matter what the artifact is, whether it’s inexpensive or expensive, whether it’s handmade or mass produced, it’s still an authentic representation for the person who purchased it, because it represents that moment in time, that experience that that individual had, visiting that culture.”

That came as a surprise to some of the 23 students in the class, she adds.

“I think for the students, they went in being biased, thinking that if something’s made in China it can’t actually represent (another) culture. But, in fact, it can for the individual who’s purchased it.”

The items in the exhibit include 10 from the U of A collection and another 20 or so from students and staff. They include musical instruments from China, a boomerang and didgeridoo from Australia, a doll from Mexico and a kimono from Japan.

Each is accompanied by the story of its origin from the student or staff member who bought it.

“The personal stories are often very quirky, because people acquire things for interesting reasons,” Strickfaden says. “They make connections with those objects after they return home, as well.”

She submitted several of her own souvenirs, including a cookbook she received in Belgium, where she used to live. When she left, friends gave it to her, explaining cookbooks are usually given to teens when they leave home. “They wanted to give it to me because they wanted me to remember Belgium as a home for years to come.”

The kimono was given to her in Japan by the mother of a student she had helped take care of by teaching her in Canada, Strickfaden explains.

Robyn Stobbs, one of the students who helped choose the items from the university’s collection, says working on a project with the entire class and putting an exhibition together was a great experience.

Her own contribution, a small clay flute she picked up in China, was clearly made for tourists — it even came with English and Chinese instructions. “Yet it still has a great deal of meaning to me,” she says.

One of her favourite pieces in the exhibit is a set of beautiful nesting dolls from Russia, she says.

The exhibit runs until May 21 in the main lobby of the U of A’s Human Ecology Building at the corner of 116th Street and 90th Avenue.

It’s open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free.

May 17, 2012 update: I just visited this exhibit, and there's really not much to it. Some of the items are more interesting than others; many of the items are the sort that might strike tourists as exotic, while the natives probably regard them as trinkets of the sort that you can find in any souvenir shop.