The Social Life of Things
Commodities in Cultural Perspective

Table of Contents

Foreword Nancy Farriss
Preface
Part I. Toward an anthropology of things:
1. Introduction: commodities and the politics of value Arjun Appadurai
2. The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process Igor Kopytoff
Part II. Exchange, Consumption, and Display:
3. Two kinds of value in the Eastern Solomon Islands William H. Davenport
4. Newcomers to the world of goods: consumption among the Muria Gonds Alfred Gell
Part III. Prestige, Commemoration, and Value:
5. Varna and the emergence of wealth in prehistoric Europe Colin Renfrew
6. Sacred commodities: the circulation of medieval relics Patrick Geary
Part IV. Production Regimes and the Sociology of Demand:
7. Weavers and dealers: the authenticity of an oriental carpet Brian Spooner
8. Qat: changes in the production and consumption of a quasilegal commodity in northeast Africa Lee V. Cassanelli
Part V. Historical Transformations and Commodity Codes:
9. The structure of a cultural crisis: thinking about cloth in France before and after the Revolution William M. Reddy
10. The origins of swadeshi (home industry): cloth and Indian society, 1700–1930 C. A. Bayly
Index.

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• Copyright Information Page (86 KB)
• Index (332 KB)
• Marketing Excerpt (457 KB)
• Table of Contents (63 KB)
• Front Matter (354 KB)