I. Production, Circulation, and Consumption

A. Economics = three processes of production, circulation, and consumption
B. Focus of major figures in social science

1. Marx
2. Engels
3. Weber
4. Mauss
5. Malinowski
6. Willis
7. Taussig
8. Scott
9. Mintz
10. Ong

C. Daniel Miller: consumption as "the vanguard of history"
D. Miller's two questions

1. Why is consumption the vanguard of history?
2. Why have anthropologists and social scientists been so slow in trying to understand this?

 

II. Production and Exchange in the Development of Anthropology

A. Consumption as human universal
B. Marx, Durkheim, Weber, Tylor, Morgan

1. Human evolution as march of technological progress
2. Changing modes of production propel system

C. Mauss, Malinowski: exchange
D. Marxist materialism dominates in anthropology: production as locus of social organization, change, source of inequality
E. Challenge to Homo economicus

1. Kula and potlatch exchange done for social and cultural reasons (relationships and status)
2. Exchange as factor distinguishing between capitalist and non-capitalist societies

F. Legacy of capitalist/non-capitalist distinction in understanding exchange

1. We trade because of economics
2. Others trade because of culture

 

III. The Global Political Economy of Consumption

A. Politics of Cold War create hostility toward consumption

1. Exchange value: evil encroachment of Western imperialist power
2. Consumption seen as destroying autonomous cultures

a. Incongruity of Nigerian farmers drinking Coca-Cola or Malaysian teenagers wearing Levi's
b. Symbolic violence, Westernization
c. Ong: Islamic Fundamentalists in Malaysia view female factory workers' consumption as immoral, decadent
d. Important substitution policies

B. Anthropologists' concern for the "little people" leads to marginalization of consumption

 

IV. Shifts in the Organization of Late Capitalism Change the Vanguard of History

A. Collapse of Soviet Union, "late capitalism"

1. Capitalism is dominant global mode of production
2. Capitalism has naturalized itself as greatest good for the greatest number

B. Lingering anthropological hostility to capitalism: Mintz

1. Respects British desire for sugar
2. Consumption of sugar as kind of mystification

a. Supports subordination of plantation laborers
b. Supports low wages, poor food among working classes

C. Desire to consume blinds us to inequalities of production
D. Recent focus on consumption as creating identity

1. Capitalism allows greater access to goods
2. People enjoy consumption
3. People make consumption choices

E. Consumption enables heterogenization of culture
F. Miller: consumers have preponderance of power in late capitalism

1. Shift in how products are marketed

a. Producers used to make product, then create desire for it through advertising
b. Now, marketing studies allow producers to respond to consumer demands

2. Vertical integration

a. Producers are distributors
b. Gap, Ann Taylor, supermarket brands: flexible, efficient, fast in responding to consumer demands

G. Shifts in consumption in developing countries

1. Old paradigm: Third World produces, First World consumes
2. Today: Size of Third World market attracts companies
3. Pepsi in Vietnam

a. Embargo lifted in 1994
b. Pepsi's advertising campaign
c. Vietnamese consume 15 bottles of soda per person per year

4. Fordism in Third World

H. Spread of mass consumption makes it more anthropological

1. Examine why people make certain consumption choices, impact of history, global conditions
2. Explore effects of consumption choices on individuals, society, and economy

 

V. The Consuming Housewife

A. Miller: housewife as "global dictator"
B. Gender component led analysts to denigrate consumption

1. Worker struggles for higher wages = important, powerful
2. Housewife clips coupons to save money = trivial, superficial

 

For more information, contact:  aleshkow@holycross.edu