The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521357268 ISBN 13: 9780521357265

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1988

Synopsis

The meaning that people attribute to things necessarily derives from human transactions and motivations, particularly from how those things are used and circulated. The contributors to this volume examine how things are sold and traded in a variety of social and cultural settings, both present and past. Focusing on culturally defined aspects of exchange and socially regulated processes of circulation, the essays illuminate the ways in which people find value in things and things give value to social relations. By looking at things as if they lead social lives, the authors provide a new way to understand how value is externalized and sought after. Containing contributions from American and British social anthropologists and historians, the volume bridges the disciplines of social history, cultural anthropology, and economics, and marks a major step in our understanding of the cultural basis of economic life and the sociology of culture. It will appeal to anthropologists, social historians, economists, archaeologists, and historians of art.

About this title

Book Description:

The contributors to this volume examine how things are sold and traded in a variety of social and cultural settings, both present and past. Focusing on culturally defined aspects of exchange and socially regulated processes of circulation, the essays illuminate the ways in which people find value in things and things give value to social relations.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0521357268
• ISBN 13: 9780521357265
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 348
• Editor: Appadurai Arjun