Personal identification documents are intriguing to me and I think they would provide a great deal of insight as to how we classify ourselves. The complexities and variances of the human experience are endlessly interesting to me, and the evolution of personal identification, within Canada and abroad, tells both individual stories as well as a big picture of our societies.
I would focus on the drivers license, even though the historical scope of study is more narrow than it would be with a birth certificate, it contains a goldmine of information that is irresistible!
Thinking about when the car was invented (1886- according to wiki) the regulations about who could drive have changed dramatically over time. The number of people with drivers licenses would show us things like affordability and prevalence of vehicles at any given moment in history. The evolution of the ID would show us changes in what information was included, when photographs were first used and what types of cameras were used, where they were issued and so on. How many licenses belonged to women and how does this data change among different countries?
In addition to containing data that reflects the composition of our society and social issues over time, drivers licenses tells a part of the story of government policy, surveillance and technology. How has the way government classifies their citizens changed and why? What were the first restrictions on driving and how have these policies evolved? What materials have been used to make drivers licenses and what can these tell us about the economy, trade and environment?
I'm sure these questions could be answered in other ways, but using drivers licenses to answer them adds another dimension to our understanding of the world. Plus, think about how many hilariously bad photos would be enjoyed in the process!
I've never considered pieces of ID as artifacts, but it's really interesting to think of them in that context! I think in addition to the development of IDs over time, it would be interesting to look at how the trends vary in different locations. As an example, my father always mentions the fact that in Hong Kong, you carry one piece of ID that acts as all forms of identification and gives you access to most services. In comparison, we all carry/must have multiple pieces of ID (e.g. driver's license, health card, SIN card, birth certificates). I wonder how these norms (the number of pieces of ID needed) came to be.
ReplyDeleteContinuing off of Ling's point on Hong Kong IDs, it'd be fascinating to see how ID will change in the future. I could definitely see an integration of IDs happening, such as the enhanced driver's license to go to the States without your passport. Some scary stuff like RFID tags embedded under our skin comes to mind though.
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