Will Gregory offers a replica 15th-century ship housed in a Canadian mall: the Santa Maria, on board which Columbus ‘discovered’ the New World in 1492, laying the foundation for colonialism in the Americas, new global trade routes, entrenched geopolitical conflicts and a turning point in human relationships with the environment.
Museum of the Anthropocene: Santa Maria at the Mall
At first glance, a Canadian mall seems a curious place for a replica 15th-century ship. Yet, perhaps in many ways, it’s the perfect place.
Columbus ‘discovered’ the New World in 1492 aboard the Santa Maria. This voyage laid the foundation for colonialism in the Americas, opened new global trade routes, and entrenched geopolitical conflicts. The environmental impact of this new, global human activity marked a turning point in human relationships with the environment. Some argue this was the beginning of the Anthropocene; a geological period defined by human impact on the planet.
Others argue the ‘Great Acceleration’ of the mid-20th Century, marked by rampant consumerism, saw the beginning of the Anthropocene. The mall was designed and developed as a space to facilitate consumption. Yet, malls also worked to create a cultural space. Reminiscent of a town square, malls provide protection from the elements and an excuse or opportunity to meet others. They present a social environment, with consumerism at its heart. West Edmonton Mall (WEM) encapsulates the idea of the mall as a ‘consumer utopia’. It was, for a time, the world’s largest and first ‘mega’-mall. A place that contained the globe and could transport visitors across Parisian boulevards, Victorian London, and New Orleans’ Bourbon Street through mimicked storefronts and walkways.
Both arguments about the beginning of the Anthropocene share a common feature – capitalism. Columbus marvelled at the New World, not in terms of aesthetic value but of monetary potential. The mall is the church of capitalism. At WEM capitalism and the Anthropocene seem inseparable.
The ship and the mall have always been connected. The ships that brought European settlers to the Americas opened the globe to trade and ever-increasing consumption. Consumerism birthed the mall, stocked with goods transported around the globe on ships. Colonial ships harboured rats (and their diseases). The mall harbours ‘mallrats’. Ships and malls are part of a complex web of mass consumption and globalisation that has had profound environmental impacts. Yet, these impacts are not distributed evenly.
To some, the Santa Maria represents progress. Columbus’ voyage planted the seeds for Western civilisation and democracy in North America and has become intertwined with notions of patriotism. For others, the ship represents domination. Columbus’s voyage unleashed a physical and biological invasion against indigenous populations.
The narrative of the Anthropocene may be one that culminates in a future period of irreversible destabilisation in the global climate system. Yet, for indigenous people, the hardships of cultural, political, and environmental changes associated with a changing climate are not visions of a future dystopia, but hardships already endured through the legacies of colonialism.
The Santa Maria represents European colonial expansion, and the Mall symbolises the culture of the Great Acceleration. Together, they symbolise the Anthropocene. So, is the ‘mega’-mall such a strange home for the ship after all?
Santa Maria at the Mall was contributed by Will Gregory. Will says: “Before stumbling across the world of human geography by taking Martin’s module, I’d always thought about the Anthropocene from a physical science perspective. ‘Human Geography in the Anthropocene’ opened up cultural, historical and political lenses through which to view the world and our place in it, an outlook I will be taking with me in my next steps beyond university”.
The 1492 voyage of Columbus on the Santa Maria is one candidate for dating the start of the Anthropocene, as discussed in this piece at The Conversation (25/6/20): Why the Anthropocene began with European colonisation, mass slavery and the ‘great dying’ of the 16th century. The Columbian Exchange also features in our Anthropocene Glossary, along with other terms and concepts that we use to talk about this novel (or, at least, newly recognised, but deeply rooted) planetary age and how our material cultures shed light on its complexities and challenges.