Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource BIbliografia Colonizzazioni interne Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective Type The nature or genre of the resource Book Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Arjun Appadurai Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cambridge University Press Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1988-01-29 Language A language of the resource en Zotero Title The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective Item Type Book Author Arjun Appadurai Publisher Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521357265 Date 1988-01-29 Library Catalog Google Books Language en Abstract Note 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. 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. Short Title The Social Life of Things Num Pages 350 Attachment Title Google Books Link Political Science / Public Policy / Social Services & Welfare Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural Social Science / Anthropology / General