What is the smallest set of things that we need in a modern consumer society?
ON SOCIAL media site Instagram, thousands of people in the US post photos with the hashtag #edc, meaning 鈥渆veryday carry鈥�. These show the tools, weapons and accoutrements that they haul around day in, day out. Men also show off the contents of their pockets through #pocketdump (currently 17,900 photos), whereas women tend to favour #whatsinmybag (25,450 photos).
The core stuff is remarkably similar for both groups. Those possessions we keep closest on a daily basis have a special practicality, concreteness, intimacy and symbolic importance. As the tool-making species, we are what we carry. And what we carry might offer a guide to what we really need, stripped of the clutter of overconsumption.
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For an evolutionary psychologist like me it is natural to wonder if we can link our everyday stuff to that of our distant ancestors, for whom raw survival dictated most possessions.
Sadly, we don鈥檛 have any prehistoric #pocketdump or #whatsinmybag images, but we do have some useful clues from 脰tzi, a man who lived about 5300 years ago, and whose ice-preserved body was found in the Italian Alps in 1991. Since then, we have learned a lot about him, from his genome and the proteins expressed in his brain to the make-up of his gut microbes and his lethal arrow wound. His possessions were also well-preserved: a diverse set of clothes, tools, weapons, fire-makers, supplies and foul-weather gear suitable for his mixed roles of soldier, hunter, camper and explorer.
Much of his gear looks primitive to modern eyes. But 脰tzi wasn鈥檛 a distant ancestor: he had an anatomically modern brain in an anatomically modern body. In terms of timescale, we are no further from Socrates than Socrates was from 脰tzi. So we should be able to find similarities between what he carried and our essentials.
The things we carry
Many are obvious. 脰tzi鈥檚 tinder fungus and flint for making fires is analogous to a lighter. His lumps of birch polypore fungus had antibiotic and antiparasitic properties, as well as the ability to stop bleeding, like modern Amoxycillin, deworming tablets and adhesive bandages.
Likewise, 脰tzi鈥檚 clothing and luggage make sense to us as everyday essentials. His well-worn, often-repaired goat-hide leggings are akin to a favourite pair of jeans. His deerskin shoes with bearskin soles are like rugged boots. His leather backpack is today鈥檚 bag to haul our essentials around.
But it is 脰tzi鈥檚 weapons that really get to the heart of the search for our essential possessions 鈥� namely, the ability to acquire food. His longbow was an important possession. If he had lived long enough to finish making it, it would have been a formidable weapon, capable of killing animals up to 40 metres away. In the same vein, 脰tzi鈥檚 prize possession was probably his axe, with a blade of almost pure copper. It could chop down trees, split firewood and defend against humans and predatory animals. Security and warmth are core necessities for us, too.
鈥�175 The pairs of jeans that you will love and leave before you die; UK data from Kantar UK Insights and UK National Statistics鈥�
Of course across much of the world we no longer need an axe or longbow to acquire food and gain security, and this is where we get to the core of the things we really need today. Given modern supermarkets, hospitals, police and armies, the true analogues are the debit card, the health-insurance card, the driver鈥檚 licence and the passport. As physical objects, they are just shards of paper and plastic, hardly enough to swat a fly. But as identity technologies, they tap into all the threats and promises offered by vast systems of finance, medicine, security and governance. The contents of a high-status New Yorker鈥檚 wallet or purse represent a small yet potent claim on the combined resources of Citibank, the Mount Sinai Medical Center, the New York Police Department and the US Navy.
Although not a carried possession, there is another aspect of 脰tzi鈥檚 life that informs today鈥檚 needs. For thousands of years, his people lived in permanent settlements, usually on hilltops, for protection against raids. If 脰tzi was high status, he would have lived in the equivalent of a McMansion in a gated community, with an active neighbourhood watch. Almost all #pocketdump or #whatsinmypurse images include house keys. This ubiquitous portable possession unlocks warmth, shelter, security and access to the rest of our things.
And while most of 脰tzi鈥檚 possessions look purely practical, it is clear that some had a bit more pizzazz. Take his stripy coat. It was made from strips of goat hide, alternating dark and light, and would have presented a striking pattern. Today鈥檚 urban hipster might wear a bomber jacket in distressed leather 鈥� wholly practical yet pretentiously stylish. And 脰tzi鈥檚 axe almost certainly carried prestige value; of his formally buried clan-mates, fewer than one in five were interred with similar axes. We start to see that even essentials can鈥檛 escape that grey zone where needs and wants mingle. Just like 脰tzi鈥檚 axe, the stuff we carry can go beyond the practical to be highly symbolic 鈥� the iPhone 5S, the BMW car keys, the 鈥渕agnum-sized鈥� condoms, the Clinique lipstick.
World in our hands
Finally, our most advanced essential 鈥� the smartphone 鈥� has no real analogue in 脰tzi鈥檚 kit. With it we can access any human knowledge, buy any good or service, and summon any form of help. We can talk with any of the 5 billion people who own a phone. We can find our location through GPS, food through Yelp, shelter through Airbnb and a mate through . If the copper axe was the most distinctive status symbol that 脰tzi carried, the smartphone is ours.
鈥淚f a copper axe was 脰tzi鈥檚 most distinctive status symbol, the smartphone is ours鈥�
Clearly, at the physical level, our technologies are better, lighter and more robust than 脰tzi鈥檚. Our modern boots beat 脰tzi鈥檚 leaky shoes. Amoxycillin kills bacteria better than birch fungus.
Yet the real power of our handy essentials comes from the physical, social and informational ecosystems that they let us access. Car keys, house keys, debit cards, passports and smartphones aren鈥檛 just hardware; they are the input-output devices that let our brains and bodies plug into modern civilisation. One car key can access 300 horsepower. One Oyster card can access all 400 kilometres of track on the London Underground. One iPhone can access trillions of dollars of telecoms, internet and GPS satellite infrastructure.
With them we can tap into vast networks of human cooperation, mutual accountability and symbolic status, on scales unimaginable to 脰tzi and his peers.
So, what we need is pretty much what we carry. Next time you leave the house, grabbing your bag with your keys, phone and wallet, spare a thought for what you have with you 鈥� all the power, knowledge and vanity of an entire species compressed into a handful of objects.
Read more: 鈥�Our stuff: Why it鈥檚 human nature to own things鈥�
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淭he bare necessities鈥�
