Item 1: A travel coffee mug and a cup of 'to go' cereal in an individual, plastic disposable bowl
             One of the first questions every anthropologist asks about a society is: how did that society eat? A travel coffee mug answers the questions of how our society eats, what it eats, and where it eats, as well as exemplifies America's fast pace and the importance of cars as transportation in the world. Americans are so busy they eat in their cars, live in their cars, and do not have enough time in the morning even to sip a cup of coffee at the breakfast table or to fix a bowl of cereal.
             Convenience rather than skilled or leisurely preparation of food is what is most important when people select their breakfast menu items, even when consuming is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. It is hard to believe a hundred years ago, few people ate cereal, and many people consumed eggs, bacon, or other substantial meat products that took a long time to prepare for breakfast. Even poor people ate bread prepared at home, or at a local bakery, and took the time to make coffee from scratch.
             How we communicate is another integral part of what defines our society. We communicate 'on the go.' We are connected to people 24/7, yet we seldom see their faces (unless it is a photograph taken on a combination cell phone camera)! Of course, when the time capsule is opened, it is possible that the people of the future will not be able to use the cell phone, because communication technology has evolved even further. To remedy this, a small recording of some typical conversations that take place on cell phones that could be activated on a battery-powered tape recorder, and a picture of someone in a car taking on a cell phone, could be included as well. This would help illustrate the fragmented nature of modern conversation, and to show how cell phones were used in our society. The sampling of recorded
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