Material World: A Global Family Portrait

This book is a fantastic picture book and statistical reference of our world. Menzel's idea was brilliant- -to identify a statistically average family in every corner of the world, and photograph them and all of their belongings, as well as capture aspects of their daily life on film.The book is organized by continent, and then by country within each continent. Each entry begins with a multi-page photo of the family in front of their house, with of all their possessions. Beside the photo is an enumeration of the possessions that appear in the photo. The remainder of the article is found on the next 3 or 4 pages. There is usually a short summary of statistics about the country, covering such topics as area, population, population density, life expectancy, and rank of affluence among U.N. member countries. But much more informative are a variety of high-quality color photos showing family members going about their daily activities, at work, at school, or eating a meal in the family home. There is a brief text about the family itself, who they are, what they do, and where they live. The photographer also provides a brief summary of his or her experiences while living with the family and taking the photographs. In the photographer's notes are statistics about the work week, the number of radios, telephones, televisions, VCRs, and automobiles. The photographer also asks each family member to identify their most valued possessions and their dreams for the future.The choice of the family to convey both the ideal and the reality of a typical "American" family was perfect. They have the requisite two children, one of each gender, and a dog. They are shown outside their ranch-style house, with a fairly new pickup truck and minivan in their attached garage. The photographer's idea of commandeering the entire cul-de-sac of the sub-development to showcase the family's possessions for the main photograph does an incredible job at capturing Americans' need for and use of space. (It makes an incredible contrast with the Japanese family, who have just as many possessions or even more, but are photographed with everything crammed together in a tiny block just the width of their house.) The picture of the American family appears on the cover of the book, juxtaposed with the family from Bhutan, with their house and meager possessions perched on a mountainside with no roads in sight. Despite the innumerable differences between the families, there are also many parallels. Both families are obviously proud of what they have and who they are. And in these pictures, and throughout the book, over and over again throughout the world, the family members identify religious objects as their most valued possessions.In addition to the main chapters, the book also includes short features on televisions of the world, meals of the world, and toilets of the world, as well as appendices with more statistics, contributing photographers' biographies, and a list of more possessions that couldn't be included in the photographs.Through its photographs, this book does an amazing job at explaining who we are as a human family, and how we are all similar. It also lets us know what life is like for average people around the world, and does a better job at this than any simple listing of statistics or geography text. When I read this book for the first time, I laughed, and even cried upon seeing how little some people in the world actually have to call their own. This was especially moving when I remembered that each family was chosen not because it was picturesque or poverty-stricken, but because it was statistically average. This book should be in every public library, it could be used by homeschoolers as a geography text, but everyone will find something of interest in it. It is one of the 10 most personally influential books that I have read.If reading this book isn't enough for you, the project also produced a multimedia CD-ROM with added features and a series of children's books with more photographs and information for children about each family. An even more moving sequel called "Women of the Material World" is also available and highly recommended.

This book brings us into the homes of ordinary people around the world and introduces us to their families and their possessions. The photography is astounding! One striking thing that I noticed is that even those families living in the most dire poverty took pride in being clean and well-groomed. The same is true for their homes. Included in the book are intriguing statistics. For example, we learn that Albania leads the world in cigarette consumption; that Western Samoa ranks first in teen suicide among world nations; and that the second largest per capita electricity user in the world is Iceland! One question that the authors/photographers asked of the families they interviewed was "What is your wish for the future?" Many answered that they wanted livestock or a television or a car. Especially telling was the reply given by the Guatemalan family. They wished only "to stay alive".I'm not so sure about the "statistically average" American family they chose to include. Is it the fact that I don't believe that most Americans are all about guns, Bibles and cowboy hats? Or is it the troubling thought that this might indeed be the case?

Loved this book!

Material World by Peter Menzel can help us understand how we must live to Limit Global Warming to 1.5 Degrees C.We can look at the people and their possessions in each country and learn how many pounds of CO2 they emit per person per day.Then we can learn that the green plants and ecosystems on land sequester about 2.4 pounds of CO2 per world citizen per day. (1) To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, everyone in the world must emit less than the green plants and ecosystems on land sequester.To limit global warming to 1.5 Degrees C, everyone in the world must emit less than 2.4 pounds of CO2 per world citizen per day.The people in Mali and Ethiopia emit just 0.5 pounds of CO2 per person per day. The people of Haiti emit just 1.3 pounds of CO2 per person per day. The people in all the other countries emit more than 2.4 pounds of CO2 per person per day.To limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C, our goal must be to live like the people of Mali and Ethiopia and Haiti and emit less than 2.4 pounds of CO2 per person per day.(1) NASA’s Earth Observatory Forest Carbon website says the green plants and ecosystems on land sequester about 3 billion metric tonnes of CO2 per year.We can take those 3 billion metric tonnes of CO2 and divide it by 7.6 billion people to find the average citizen can emit about 0.39 tonnes of CO2 per year and have those 0.39 tonnes of CO2 sequestered by the green plants and ecosystems on land. Multiplying 0.39 tonnes of CO2 per year by 2205 pound per tonne and dividing by 365 days per year shows the average world citizen can emit about 2.4 pounds of CO2 per day and have those pounds of CO2 sequestered by the green plants and ecosystems.Citizens of the United States emit about 102 pounds of CO2 per person per day, South Africans (55), Mongolians (42), Japanese (56), Chinese (40), India (10), Bhutan (4.6) Thailand (27.5), Vietnam (11.6), Uzbekistan (24), Cuba (19, Guatamala (4.6), Argentina (28.2), Brazil (13.5), Mexico (24), Iceland (35.3), Western Somoa (7.6), Germany (53.2), Russia (76.1), Albania (8.9), Italy (39.6), Spain (35.2), Great Britain (43.4), Bosnia (37.4), Iraq (25.4), Kuwait (176), Israel (55.7).You can find out the “pounds of CO2 emitted per person per day” of any country by taking the per capita CO2 emissions of that country, multiplying by 2205 pounds per tonne, and dividing by 365 days per year.

This is dated material, but still very eye-opening when it comes to the wealth and prosperity that we have compared to much of the rest of the world. Also, the ethnic differences in cultural food and home decor are really fascinating to see.