Chapter 5: Economic Theory, Marxism, and Material Culture

Annotations:

• By Silvana Rodarte    Citation Berger,A. A. (2016) What Objects Mean: AnIntroduction to Material Culture (2nd ed.). NY, NY: Routledge.  

1. Methodology: Needs Versus Desires: Traveling Light and Arriving Heavy
   1. Definition and Characteristics: We tend to accumulate more than we need or can use. The brands of objects are of major significance in the analysis of material culture.
   2. Method: We all spend a good deal of time shopping, and when we shop we buy things which is one way we define ourselves, and often develop strong emotional attachments to our possessions.
2. Methodology: Marxist Theory and Alienation
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Karl Marx developed a number of economic and psychological theories to explain the role of capitalism in the modern world. Alienation is a separation or estrangement of man’s true nature from his sense of self. The objects and artifacts we possess are signifiers of the alienation we feel.
   2. Method: Everyone tries to establish over others an alien power in order to find there the satisfaction of his egoistic need.
   3. Method: These “needs” are not real, Marxists argue, but are artificially imposed on us by advertising agencies and marketers, who convince us we need to purchase a product to be happy.
   4. Method: The more artifacts we feel we need to have, the more we are signifying our alienation and the more alienated we are.
      1. Example: Big diamond rings worn by wealthy women are indicators of alienation and estrangement. You worry about losing them or people trying to take them away.
3. Methodology: Class Conflict
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Class conflict is the unequal distribution of goods.
   2. Method: Bourgeoisie (ruling class) and Proletariat (workers exploited). Bourgeoisie use “false consciousness” as a notion that everyone can succeed if they are willing to work hard enough. They also avoid class conflict by having proletariat purchase goods and services that distract their attention from class makeup of society and unequal distribution of wealth.
4. Methodology: The Role of Advertising
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Advertising is for many Marxists the main engine of consumer culture in capitalist societies. Wolfgang Haug mentions that the advertising industry has learned how to attach sexuality to objects and artifacts and to “aestheticize” them, enabling the ruling classes in capitalist societies to more fully exploit the masses.
   2. Method: Marxist Wolfgang Haug says advertising’s goal is to sell artifacts and various kinds of objects. Long range goal: turn people’s attention away from their exploitation and justify the existence of a capitalistic system.
   3. Method: Marxist Henri Lefebvre says advertising has induced people to buy objects and products to give them value and status in people’s eyes. To inform purchases and their lives.
   4. Method: As advertising executives often explain, “”our job is to convince you to buy things you didn’t know you needed.”
5. Methodology: Thorsten Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption
   1. Definition and Characteristics- Veblen was a radical American economist offering a different perspective on the role of consumption in the U.S. Conspicuous consumption, conspicuous leisure, conspicuous display of symbols of high standing are to Veblen some of the means by which men attempt to excel their neighbors and so attain heightened self-evaluation.
   2. Method: Coser argues that Veblen uses functional analysis in dealing with conspicuous consumption. For example: Manifestly, candles are meant to provide light. The latent function of lighting a candle at dinner indicates that the host makes claim to a style of gracious living that is peculiar to the upper class.
   3. Method: Veblen suggests to look for the hidden latent functions of objects to fully understand the role they play in our lives. The problem is that we can never feel satisfied with what we have.
6. Methodology: Max Weber and Calvinist-Protestant Thought
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Max Weber and important German sociologist argues that the Calvinist theology is behind the development of capitalism and the attitudes people have towards their possessions.
   2. Method: According to Weber, the “Protestant ethic” is behind the development of capitalism. It loosened the grip on people’s minds of medieval notions about the value of poverty and justified consumption as something that God wants people to do, something that has a divine significance.
   3. Method: Weber explains: “The power of religious asceticism provided him [the bourgeois business man]… with sober, conscientious, and unusually diligent workmen, who clung to their work as to a life purpose willed by God.” This justifies the ruling class’s position and lifestyle.
7. Methodology: Georg Simmel on Fashion
   1. Definition and Characteristics: How fashion plays a role in the economy. Every growth of a fashion drives it to its doom, because it thereby cancels out its distinctiveness.
   2. Method: Once the exclusivity of fashion becomes mass adopted, fashionistas have to move on to something new. Example: capitalist economies are more than willing to create new products like new versions of the iPod (leads to more consumption).
   3. Method: Because of their social and political subservience women pay attention to fashion. With the weaknesses of social position, women arise their close relationship to all that is “custom”, to that which is “right and proper” to the generally valid and approved form of existence.
8. Methodology: Walter Benjamin and the Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Benjamin a German Marxist was interested in the impact of mass production on objects. Man-made artifacts could always be imitated by man. “Auras” is what makes original works original.
      1. Method: Reproduced objects or imitations are separated from the auras of original works. It’s not unique anymore. Once authenticity becomes irrelevant, art is no longer based on ritual with its focus on the creative artist and the creative process.
   2. Method: He points out that authenticity relies upon the presence of originals, which leads to an object being authentic (as seen with photography).
   3. Method: When people purchase name brand products, they are purchasing the aura, the good name that becomes attached to the creator of the product or brand.
9. Methodology: Authenticity and Postmodern Thought
   1. Definition and Characteristics: Jean-Francois Lyotard says that postmodernism is characterized “incredulity toward metanarratives”. It dissolves boundaries between elite and popular culture, and original works of art and reproductions. Authenticity is not important in here.
   2. Method: American culture is postmodern because around 1960 there was a cultural swing from modernist though (valuing metanarratives and authenticity) to postmodern thought (mixes styles and adopts the pastiche as a cultural dominant).
   3. Method: Knock offs are acceptable and even desired because they are less expensive that name brand originals.
10. Methodology: John Berger on Advertising and Material Culture
    1. Definition and Characteristics: Publicity is a language in itself which is being used to make the same general proposal. Choices are offered (this and that). Buying more makes us richer (self-esteem and pleasure) even though we will be poorer (economically).
    2. Method: The objects we purchase play an important role in our social relations and that advertising is the engine that gives the objects we purchase their significance for us. For example: buying a car (if you buy a sports car it’ll lift your self-esteem and it will literally take you places- two benefits).