Marketing, or the Anthropology of Consumption

Abstract

The article considers marketing as a socially located practice, and argues that any form of trade or exchange may be seen to both reflect and reinforce the social structures, customs and outlook of an entire culture and not simply a part of it. These developments are grounded in aspects of anthropology which, in turn, suggest that not only is trade a socially significant activity but that the objects which are traded in are themselves remarkable as reflections of the nature and influence of those who caused them to be manufactured. The article may be seen accordingly as an attempt to develop insights into the societal and cultural processes associated with contemporary variations in the “cultural design of persons and goods” (Sahlins, 1976). This understanding may then be used as a basis for the further investigation of marketing and its part in the “creation and movement of goods”.