As students, we often become accidental archivists: Whether it be old class notes or miscellaneous campus merch, our lives are often full of these collections. Sometimes, the collections that initially appear to be trash become treasured. Students also move a lot, resulting in an annual cycle of packing and unboxing, which makes it difficult to sustain one’s collections. Getting rid of belongings should be easy, but sometimes parting with the things one spent time and money collecting seems impossible.
I have been collecting books ever since I first learned to read, and it was not until I moved away for university that I even considered giving them up. Moving halfway around the world to attend university sounded like an adventure, until I realized that I had to fit my whole life into two 23-kilogram suitcases. I had not reread many of the books in my collection in years—being too busy with academics, life, and discovering new books—and they were certainly too heavy to transport to a new continent, just for them to collect dust. When I was younger, I defined myself through my books, as they offered me much needed company and adventure. While it was daunting to say goodbye to something I had treasured for years, moving away and travelling gave me a new perspective.
The tendency to collect is certainly not restricted to me, however. In fact, humans have been collecting things ever since they developed the ability to store more things than necessary for basic survival. The different objects people collect as well as the motivations behind these collections intrigued me, so I began investigating what factors inform this phenomenon.
Most human behaviour like collecting is rooted in biology and evolution, evolved from years of survival and self-preservation. Richard Koestner is a professor at McGill’s Department of Psychology whose research focusses on personality and motivation.
“There is an evolutionary explanation that has been offered for almost all human behaviors,” Koestner wrote in an email to //The McGill Tribune//. “I would guess it is largely genetic and […] does confer some broad fitness advantage to individuals, and that there is an advantage to groups if there are some people [present] who collect and organize things.’’