ANTH 277 - Commodity Consumption and the Formation of Consumer Culture

Institution:

Wesleyan University

Subject:

Anthropology

Description:

This course investigates the historical development of commodity production and its global expansion since the early modern period. This process can be interrogated from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and through both global and local lenses. This course opens up a conversation between a historical archaeologist and a cultural anthropologist on commodity consumption as a material, social, and cultural process; in so doing we will contrast archaeological and ethnographic approaches. Among the questions we will address are, What makes a thing a commodity, and how did commodity production develop as the dominant form of production and lead to a culture of mass consumption? How have social relations both shaped and been shaped by commodities? How has the proliferation of new spaces of consumption, from markets, to department stores, to Internet shopping, figured into this process? Are there significant differences between the marketing of material and symbolic goods? Throughout, we will emphasize the creative agency of consumers and the continual transformation of things, whether those things were acquired in domestic or global markets. Examples will be drawn from the early modern period to the present.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Discus/recit

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wesleyan.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 685-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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