Manger! High Voltage!
I love history...particularly the history of objects, and the way history shaped them, and the way the objects shaped their own eras. Every generation whitewashes the generation before it, lionizing the soft-focus town square gazebo picket fence bullshit while sweeping unseemly items and memories under the rug. Every society has its tittilating, vulgar, and explicit art: everybody loves a good joke.
My friend Dan forwarded me a website devoted to Caganer figures: little statues of defecating people that Catalan folks in Southern France/Northern Spain like to put in their manger scenes. I kid you not! Look carefully at one of their manger scenes, and in addition to the usual animals and wise men, you'll find a red-capped character squatting and relieving themselves. The Caganer has a rich tradition--sacred and profane mingle with political and social satire. The figures were originally Catalan peasants, and had symbolism associated with "fertilizing" the earth, but I think even these earliest practitioners of the form revelled in their naughtiness.
Caganer.com is a website that sells modern Caganer figures in a baffling array of varieties. You can get Caganer figures of soccer stars, political figures (that's actually George Bush in the picture above...the likeness is a little bit crude), Santa Claus (!) and even the Pope! Spice up your own manger scene with a Caganer figure...or maybe it's time for you to enter a customized one in the NPR contest. We certainly have a lot of politicians and celebrities spreading the fertilizer.
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