Roughly 25 million pounds of beads are in circulation annually, making them as much a part of the Fat Tuesday celebration as sugary cocktails and King Cake. Traditions and rituals can be hard to pin down, but Mardi Gras historians believe the idea of distributing trinkets began in the s or s, several hundred years after French settlers introduced the celebration to Louisiana in the s.
Party organizers—known locally as krewes —handed out baubles and other shiny objects to revelers to help commemorate the occasion. Some of them threw chocolate-covered almonds.
They were joined by more mischievous attendees, who threw dirt or flour on people in an effort to stir up a little bit of trouble. Why beads? Tiny tokens that represent wealth, health, and other prosperity have been a part of human history for centuries. In Egypt, tokens were handed out in the hopes they would guarantee a happy afterlife; the abacus, or bead-based system of accounting, used trinkets to perform calculations; pagan pre-winter rituals had people throwing grains into fields hoping to appease gods that would nourish their crops.
Humans, argues archaeologist Laurie Wilkie, display "bead lust," or a penchant for shiny objects. The two recycling groups, Arc and Grounds Krewe, partnered this Mardi Gras season to try something different: Together they packaged and sold more than 7, sustainable throws—namely, palm-sized jute bags filled with different local foods like coffee beans from New Orleans Roast, Jambalaya Girl rice mix, and Camellia Brand red beans.
Reaction from the parade participants was strong. All of the packets made this year were sold to various krewes, each eager to toss something sustainable that represented local businesses and fed the crowds.
Atlas Beads offers bracelets, necklaces, and purses crafted from recycled magazine paper by artisans in Uganda. The concept has proven popular: Owner Kevin Fitzwilliam saw his sales double this year and last. Atlas also sold 4, necklaces to the krewes of Tucks, Cleopatra, and Nyx to throw during their parades.
Many of the other Mardi Gras organizations have jumped on the sustainable parade float, too. The Krewe of Bacchus cut their plastic bead purchases by 50 percent this season, instead distributing aprons, cooking spoons, and silicone wineglasses to their revelers. The Krewe of Rex has replaced their regular plastic cups with 10, lightweight stainless steel ones. A few artists are helping with the Mardi Gras leftovers, too, by collecting those old-school necklaces to use the beads as a medium for their artwork.
My materials come to me. Sign up for the Daily Wander newsletter for expert travel inspiration and tips. Read our privacy policy. AFAR Advisor. Beaches International Beaches Islands U. Beaches Water Sports. Cities We Love. If I make a mistake, then the boss will fine me. Our rules are in place so they can make more money. It seemed as if the bead workers were treated as mules, with the forces of the market their masters. In America, the necklaces appear innocent enough, and Mardi Gras revelers seem to love them; in fact, 25 million pounds get distributed each year.
Yet they pose a danger to people and the environment. In the s, an environmental scientist named Dr. Howard Mielke was directly involved in the legal efforts to phase out lead in gasoline.
Howard mapped the levels of lead in various parts of the city, and discovered that the majority of lead in the soil is located directly alongside the Mardi Gras parade routes, where krewes the revelers who ride on the floats toss plastic beads into the crowds. By the time Mardi Gras is over, thousands of shiny necklaces litter the streets, and partiers have collectively produced roughly tons of waste — a concoction of puke, toxins and trash.
Independent research on beads collected from New Orleans parades has found toxic levels of lead, bromine, arsenic, phthalate plasticizers, halogens, cadmium, chromium, mercury and chlorine on and inside the beads. From a sociological perspective, leisure, consumption and desire all interact to create a complex ecology of social behavior. During the s and s in the United States, self-expression became the rage, with more and more people using their bodies to experience or communicate pleasure.
Revelers in New Orleans started flashing each other in return for Mardi Gras beads at the same time the free love movement became popular in the United States. The culture of consumption and ethos of self-expression merged perfectly with the production of cheap plastic in China, which was used to manufacture disposable commodities.
0コメント