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The Social Life of Things:

Commodities in Cultural Perspective
Front Cover
Arjun Appadurai
5 Reviews
Cambridge University Press, Jan 29, 1988 - 329 pages
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. They discuss a wide range of goods - from oriental carpets to human relics - to reveal both that the underlying logic of everyday economic life is not so far removed from that which explains the circulation of exotica, and that the distinction between contemporary economics and simpler, more distant ones is less obvious than has been thought. As the editor argues in his introduction, beneath the seeming infinitude of human wants, and the apparent multiplicity of material forms, there in fact lie complex, but specific, social and political mechanisms that regulate taste, trade, and desire.
  

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Review: The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective

User Review - Goodreads

A must read if you work with materiality or theories of consumption. I'd skip Appadurai's introduction until after you have had a chance to read the collection of articles.

Review: The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective

User Review  - Pete - Goodreads

Fairly sprawling discussion of economic anthropology, beginning with Simmel's thoughts on the formation of desire in modern subjects, and its relation to economic exchange. Importantly, where Simmel ... Read full review

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Selected pages

Contents

IV
3
V
64
VI
95
VII
110
VIII
141
IX
169
X
195
XI
236
XII
261
XIII
285
XIV
323
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

aesthetic anthropology areas Arjun Appadurai authenticity barter Bastar become biography British bronze age Bukhara Cambridge canoe capitalism capitalist cargo cults century chalcolithic circulation cloth commercial commoditization commodity exchange complex consumers consumption context cult cultural dealers demand dictionary discussion diversion early economic Economic Anthropology essay Ethiopia European example exchange spheres French Somaliland gift gold groups guilds Hargeisa Hindu important India Indian individual industry interest khat kind knowledge Kopytoff kula labor luxury Marx material means modern modities Mughal Muria Muslim nomadic objects oriental carpets person political prestige production recent regarded relations relationship relics ritual role royal sacred saints Savary Savary's shifts singular social society Solomon Islands Somali status suggests swadeshi symbolic taste textile things Tiri's trade traditional transactions transformation tribal Turkmen Turkmen carpets University Press Varna village weavers weaving weft Western

References to this book

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References from web pages

Arjun Appadurai: Publications
The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective The meaning that people attribute to things necessarily derives from human transactions and ...
www.appadurai.com/ publications_social.htm

JSTOR: The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective
The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Edited by Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge University Press, 1986. xiv plus 329pp. $37.50). ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0022-4529(198923)23%3A1%3C187%3ATSLOTC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-9

Commodification: Things, agency and identities: The Social Life of ...
Twenty years ago, Arjun Appadurai’s edited collection The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge, 1986) brought about a major ...
www.shikanda.net/ ethnicity/ commodif.htm

CHI workshop.idd
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THINGS. “Our culture affects our use of artefacts”: a platitude if there. ever was one. Monographs from the grand old masters of an- ...
research.microsoft.com/ ~ast/ files/ Taylor_& _Kiel_CHI03.pdf

ASC | Publications | Titles published by research staff ...
Twenty years ago, Arjun Appadurai’s edited collection The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambrigde, 1986), brought about a ...
www.ascleiden.nl/ GetPage.aspx?url=/ publications/ publicatie1333

INFOAMÉRICA | APPADURAI, Arjun: The Social Life of Things ...
The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (1988 Cambridge University Press) Libro en lengua inglesa. ...
www.infoamerica.org/ infolibros/ appadurai01.html

The Social Life of Things: Arjun Appadurai
In 1986, Appadurai’s edited volume The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective examined the role of material culture in human social life ...
smutheory.com/ Diana%20Fridberg/ Appadurai.html

The Social Life of Things Commodities in Cultural Perspective.
Titre du document / Document title. The Social Life of Things Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Auteur(s) / Author(s) ...
cat.inist.fr/ ?aModele=afficheN& cpsidt=12085364

konsum - "The Social Life of Things" — Von Waren und den ...
Icon, Nummer, Titel. up · 3 · Konsum als sozialer, kultureller und interaktiver Prozess · up · 3.3 · Konsum als "marker of difference" ...
www.lai.at/ web/ oeku/ cp/ konsum/ konsum-26.html

Stories of Things: History of Design and Material Culture
Appadurai, A. (Ed.) (1986b) The social life of things : commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Brewer, J. and Porter, ...
www.glaadh.ac.uk/ documents/ narotzky_bibliog.htm

About the author (1988)

ARJUN APPADURAI is Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is the author of many books and articles, including Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization; The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective; and Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Social Life of Things
TitleThe Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective
Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology
EditorArjun Appadurai
Editionillustrated, reprint, braille
PublisherCambridge University Press, 1988
ISBN0521357268, 9780521357265
Length329 pages
  
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