Economic Theory, Marxism, and Material Culture.

Needs Versus Desires: Traveling Light & Arriving Heavy.
1. We tend to accumulate more than we need/use.
  1. The brands of the objects you have have a major significance in the analysis of material culture.
  2. We often develop strong emotional attachments to our possessions.
Marxist Theory & Alienation.
1. Marx developed a number of economic & psychological theories to explain the role of capitalism in the modern world.
2. Alienation by Marx meant a separation or estrangement of man's true nature from his sense of self.
3. The more artifacts we feel we need to have, the more we are signifying our alienation & the more alienated we are.
Class Conflict.
1. Rich vs. Poor
2. The ruling classes also avoid class conflict by making it possible for the poor to purchase goods & services that distract their attention from the class makeup of society & the unequal distribution of wealth.
The Role of Advertising.
1. The main engine of consumer culture in capitalist societies.
2. Henri Lefebvre argues that it is advertising that gives all objects their valuation.
  1. Lefebvre believes that advertising transforms itself from an industry inducing people to buy objects & products to one that gives them value & status in people's eyes.
Thorstein Veblen & Conspicuous Consumption.
1. Thorstein Veblen was a "radical" American economist who offered a different perspective on the role of consumption in the US.
2. Veblen believes that the ultimate goal of conspicuous consumption is to enhance self of self.
3. It is necessary to look for the hidden or latent function of objects to fully understand the role they play in our lives.
4. We are locked into a situation in which we can never stop yearning for new & better things, because we are always comparing ourselves with others.
Max Weber & Calvanist-Protestant Thought
1. Weber is a German sociologist & argues that Calvinist theology is behind the development of capitalism & the attitudes people have towards their possessions.
2. Calvin argues that people should discard the catholic medieval ascetic perspective on life.
3. Protestant ethic is behind the development of capitalism.
4. The belief that there is Divine Providence that justifies the unequal distribution of wealth is a great comfort to those who form the ruling class.
Georg Simmel on Fashion
1. Fashion can be considered more broadly & understood to deal not only with new clothing styles but also with the development of the new models of artifacts we use.
2. As soon as the exclusivity of a fashion becomes tainted by mass adoption, fashionistas & new adopters have to move on to something new.
3. Says women pay attention to fashion because of their social & political subservience.
Walter Benjamin & the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
1. Benjamin was a German Marxist critic who was interested in the impact of mass products on objects.
2. Once authenticity becomes irrelevant, he suggests, art no longer is based on ritual with its focus on the creative artist & the creative process.
3. "aura"- the authenticity, heart of it.
Authenticity & Postmodern Thought
1. One of the reasons for the lack of concern about authenticity is because the concept is largely irrelevant in postmodern times.
2. Postmodernism, according to Jean-Francois Lyotard, is characterized by "incredulity toward metanarratives"
3. It also dissolves the boundaries between elite culture & popular culture & between original works of art & reproductions or imitations.
John Berger on Advertising & Material Culture.
1. Berger makes the point that publicity is about social relations, he argues that the objects we puchase play an imporant role in our social relations & that advertising is the engine that gives the objects we purchase their significance to us.

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Economic Theory, Marxism, and Material Culture.

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