le quatrième: identity
I’ve been thinking a lot around identity lately, the main theme I’ve centered on for the last few weeks. Within our day-to-day lives, there are numerous ways around how we identify, and sometimes how society has ‘labeled’ or identified us - it shapes who we are and our outlook on the human experience. My latest development in thought has been around the idea of how we first see, perceive, and then identify ourselves and how that then translates to the view we see of the world around us. It sparked some key themes of identity, curiosity, and the innate vulnerability we are willing to share with those around us.
All of us, no matter who we are or where we were born, have identities that we have placed upon ourselves or society has boxed us into and placed upon us. There are many instances that this has happened in my life and I’m sure it has happened to you as well.
As I played around with about identity as a concept, I thought about how we each construct our own perception of ourselves. In my last article I go in-depth on the conscious and unconscious minds - and while they are the machine behind our psyche, my guiding principle for this article was to first and foremost focus on the stimuli we receive and interpret which ultimately get processed by our conscious/unconscious minds. And where better to begin than with the invention of the mirror. A mirror is a true interpretation and description of your ‘self’ - at least ones ‘physical’ self. It’s a way for us to materialize and create tangibility of self, a way for us to denote the ways in which we recognize ourselves, celebrate ourselves, contrast ourselves, and compare ourselves to others. But I started becoming fascinated with the idea of a mirror, a reflective tool and portal that allows us to interpret ourselves and create perception around ‘self’. It’s especially fascinating given the proliferation and abundance of mirrors in modern times, I honestly did not think twice about mirrors until I started thinking about identity - and as I researched for this article, came to realize that the abundance of mirrors in society was not always the case.
The earliest ‘invention’ of ‘reflection’ prior to mirrors were, well, bodies of water - mother nature herself! In ancient times, most people were only able to see themselves, albeit somewhat distorted, within rivers, creeks, and oceans. It was not a constant barrage of ‘self’ but more so a chance encounter to ‘face’ oneself within the reflection of water.
In mythology, the ancient Greek story of Narcissus, we see the idea of ‘self’ and reflection come to fruition when he looked at his reflection in the water and loved it so much that he fell in and drowned. And while Narcissus gets a bad rep in modern times (ie: narcissism), reflecting on the story in this new perspective made me realize that maybe he was just fascinated to finally see who he ‘physically’ was for the first time - and that’s pretty life-changing!
Anthropologists in the 1900s discovered the first object of a mirror in modern-day Turkey - it was made out of volcanic glass, polished to then form a reflective surface that embodies a mirror. In ancient Iraq, polished copper was utilized to create a mirror and by almost 2900 BC Egyptians started using bronze and copper as well for ‘mirrors’. Around the 5th century BC, the Greeks invented the first ‘portable’ compact mirror - again it was made out of polished stone but this time came in a little box for all to use while out on the town. By the 3rd century BC, the Romans created what is known as our ‘modern-day’ mirror in which they utilized glass for the mirror. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the craft of making mirrors was also lost and truly didn’t return until about the 13th century aka the Medieval Ages.
The most recent book that’s come into my orbit specifically talks about inventions in the Medieval Ages - focusing on the fact that while many of us idolize the period of the Renaissance as an incredible period for the rise of the arts, language, and culture, focusing on the ‘Dark Ages’ or the Medieval period is just as important when assessing for ‘cultural improvements or advancements’. The book is titled ‘Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter’ by Ian Mortimer. And within the book, the author talks about the proliferation of the modern-day mirror and how that affected people of all classes.
The social classes of the Middle Ages were based largely on occupation - there were those who ruled (kings, knights, lords), those who prayed (clergymen) and those who worked (serfs, farmers, etc). The idea of a ‘sense of self’ was more so a collective exercise - it was dictated by, literally, how others saw you and your occupation. Mirrors were not commonplace before the 13th century and ownership of a mirror in all echelons wasn’t commonplace until the 15th century. The author denotes how this seemingly innocuous idea of democratizing ownership of a mirror truly revolutionized and empowered people designated within ‘lower’ social classes. People could finally see who they physically were and realized the image everyone was created from was singular. Nothing about their face said they couldn’t be men of God, nothing about their eyes said they couldn’t be Kings, nothing about their posture said they couldn’t be of a higher status. The newly-found accessibility and natural reflection of a mirror started the revolution of self - the revolution of ambition, power, of individuality - you saw your choosing and whatever you wanted to be. People were able to create their own perception of self, and their own perception of the reality of their world.
Mirrors built momentum for the narcissistic (again, Narcissus gets a bad rep but his story does not have to be perceived as a negative!) exploration in the search of the individual self. One can argue that this sense of self and perception helped spawn the creation of many mediums of art (ie: the portrait) as well.
Nowadays, we see ourselves more than ever - reflections of ourselves in mirrors, receiving opinions about ourselves from others, pictures of ourselves on social media. It’s almost as if we’ve swung the pendulum a bit too far on the whole ‘seeing ourselves within reflections’ since most of us curate ourselves within our social media and online presence as well. But there’s something still very raw and natural about a mirror - a vessel that still shows us who we are at the very core, without biases from others, without filters, without any other man-made facade - mirrors still allow us the ability to connect with ourselves to then perceive ourselves in a new light.
Through this writing, I’ve come to realize many internal and societal structures help us build and mold our identities - which could be many distinct articles, each with its own merit and weight on the formation of identity. I hope one of the takeaways you have from this article is to become more aware of the everyday objects, discourse, art, or media that affect and influence your identity. As we become more aware of these objects influencing us, we become more intentional and refine our own identities thus refining our own outlooks on life. To me, it’s become apparent that mirrors create an intimate and personal entry point into the formation of our own personal identities.
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PS: If you want to learn more about the book on Medieval Ages click here
PPS: Linked here is the photo I’ve chosen for this article - it’s a bronze mirror from the 5th century BC and it’s housed at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley
