Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 27, 1993 TAG: 9404140004
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
She recalled the hands-on research she had once undertaken in the highlands of Peru. ``There, when you want something you don't go to a mall or Kroger. If you can't make or grow it yourself, you go to the weekly marketplace.''
But where to replicate that marketplace mindset among America's fast-paced, mall-driven culture?
LaLone found her answer among tables of old, red glassware; among the hodgepodge of Americana stacked from one end of the Dublin Fairgrounds to the other.
Scores of plastic-wrapped tube socks. Velvet Elvises by the van load. Old furniture and clothes that had literally been picked from a roadside dumpster and spiffed up for resale.
For two years now, the professor has turned the biannual Dublin Flea Market into an academic pursuit. Her students have interviewed sellers, shopped among them and set up shop themselves.
That's called "participatory observation," in anthropological terms. Meaning, the students didn't just look at the culture from the outside, they immersed themselves in it - bargain-hunting, haggling and all.
``I used to think flea markets were cheesy,'' says Baltimore senior Sarah Merkle, who attended the Sept. 18 Dublin Flea Market. ``I used to think this red glass was junk. But if you look into it, it's, like, precious.''
``There's definitely a structure to flea markets that you don't see at first,'' adds senior Wendi Detwiler, from Southampton.
Last year, the students who set up booths quickly learned the unspoken rules of flea markets, such as:
The booths have definite boundaries, and fellow sellers will let you know in no uncertain terms if your stuff crosses the line into their space.
Knowledge is cash. ``What surprised me the most is how well-educated these people are,'' says senior Deanna Matthews from Lake Anna, who's been involved in the ongoing study for more than a year. ``Not just with their own items, but they were able to look at any piece of furniture, any antique, and tell you where it was from, what it was made of and the selling price.''
The students' own lack of knowledge taught them a few hard lessons, too. One student sold a broach for $30 her grandmother had given her - and then watched as the woman who bought it resold it for $200. ``She had a matching necklace to it,'' Matthews explained, which helped her get a better price. ``There was also a symbol on the back of the broach we didn't see, saying it was an original English something-or-other.''
Many sellers dress down for the occasion. ``You see sellers wearing overalls and then getting into very expensive cars,'' LaLone says. ``People will know you're not hurting if you're dressed up.''
Sellers also downplay the importance of economics, and they never brag about how much they make. All the sellers interviewed refused to tell the students how much money they earned. ``They downplay the economic aspect and play up the social,'' LaLone says.
Merchants also look down on wholesalers - a relatively new trend in flea markets - because they believe they're too money-motivated.
``There are relationships among most of these people. It's not dog-eat-dog economics,'' LaLone says. ``Even if you did have a relationship with a store owner in a mall, he still can't cut you a deal.''
The class became friends with one vendor, who was interested in buying LaLone's antique Bavarian china set, but didn't think her $200 asking price was high enough. ``We told him we needed to use him as an `informant,''' Matthews recalls. ``We agreed that if he bought it for $200, he would let us know at the end how much he made from it.''
By using a national china-matching service, the informant broke up LaLone's china set, sold it piece by piece - and made a $490 profit.
``People here are doing what anthropologists see going on all around the world: They're piecing their survival together,'' LaLone says.
A New River Valley woman revealed her ``dumpster diving'' methods to the class. She goes to different dumpster spots in the county searching for good used clothes and furniture that people throw away. With minimal cleanup efforts, she makes enough money selling the items to support her four-member family.
``She makes hundreds of dollars out of stuff other people think is junk,'' Matthews says. ``She feels ingenious, and she is.''
LaLone says some of her colleagues poo-poo the notion that the flea-market scene is a credible teaching tool, calling her study ``academic fluff'' - or the anthropological equivalent of basket-weaving 101.
``Flea markets don't fit the model of what most of us are into,'' she says. ``We buy into the mall culture. We throw away things that don't work anymore.
``It's ironic because recycling is starting to get so big. But if you recycle things like clothes or bikes - people still look down their noses at you.''
The students scoffed at first, too, she recalls. ``But later they started looking at their own waste and looked very harshly at people who look down at these people. Whereas at the beginning they would've thought, `Somebody who digs through the trash? How awful.'''
This semester, LaLone's economic anthropology class is continuing the flea market study, but has chosen to focus its main efforts on a more service-oriented project. The class is helping the Wise County town of Appalachia research and generate projects to promote tourism and economic development in the region.
``I like the real-life experience of it,'' says senior Alice Horn from Hampton. ``The people there are so enthusiastic about us, they actually hugged us.''
The students were shocked by the poverty they saw there during their first visit. But once they got to know the people, their perspectives soon changed - just as they had with the flea-market regulars.
``When you look at something with the eyes of an anthropologist, you can come out and have a whole new perspective, an appreciation for a culture,'' LaLone says. ``It's more than just reading a book or a study.
``They actually smell the smells, eat the food, talk the chatter and listen to real, live people talk about their lives. What better way to teach anthropology?''
by CNB