Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption and Media in Papua New Guinea - Hardcover

Foster, Robert J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253341477 ISBN 13: 9780253341471

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2002

Synopsis

Why, in the current era of globalization, does nationality remain an important dimension of personal and collective identities? In Materializing the Nation, Robert J. Foster argues that the contested process of nation making in Papua New Guinea unfolds not only through organized politics but also through mundane engagements with commodities and mass media. He offers a thoughtful critique of recent approaches to nationalism and consumption and an ethnographic perspective on constructs of the nation found in official policy documents, letters to the editor, school textbooks, song lyrics, advertisements, and other materials. This volume will appeal to readers interested in the links among nationalism, consumption, and media, in Melanesia and elsewhere.

About this title

About the Author

Robert J. Foster is Professor of Anthropology and Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Rochester. He is author of Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia and Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea and editor of Nation Making: Emergent Identities in Postcolonial Melanesia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253341477
• ISBN 13: 9780253341471
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216