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This chapter extends the analysis of social and material distinctions amongst the ‘middling’ at parish level by looking at household and personal goods. Using large samples of probate inventories within the three regions, it compares the material consumption patterns of local rulers with the wider ‘middling’ population outside the parochial oligarchy. In all three regions, patterns material consumption follow hierarchies of rate assessment, and illustrate how the ‘chief inhabitants’ were consistently more prosperous than those in whose name they ruled. The chapter argues that only a minority of the wealthiest, most powerful provincial ‘chief inhabitants’ possessed fashionable ‘status-bearing’ items often associated with a ‘bourgeois’ culture. It suggests that this elite sought to transcend their origins within parochial pecking orders through this material consumption by appropriating and re-inventing notions of gentility to fit their own circumstances.

Argues that during the early modern period in Europe living standards gradually rose not only because probate inventories reveal that people were acquiring more and better quality durable goods. They were also increasingly allocating resources to the acquisition of the skills of literacy. Partly, this human capital served to enhance their productivity and earning ability, but it also served for pleasure, edification and gaining status and to this extent it should be considered as a consumer durable too. A quantitative exercise tries to show that if this is factored into the more traditional ‘material consumption’ approach, it can lead to a significant reconsideration of the standard of living debate, in particular, as regards the eighteenth century.

This chapter explores the place of mass consumerism and materialistic visions of the good life among emerging adults. After a brief view of some survey statistics, it explores in some depth today’s emerging adults’ views of mass consumerism. The discussion focuses on how critical or uncritical they are of the culture of material consumption. The chapter then shifts to examining emerging adults’ outlooks on what makes for a good human life, and how material consumption fits into that vision.

This chapter examines the factors that influence an individual's decision concerning work or labor. It suggests that work decisions are also decisions about how much leisure and material consumption to enjoy and that rational individuals choose a combination of leisure and consumption that lies on their budget constraint where it is touched but not crossed by an indifference curve. The findings also indicate that individuals may respond to wage variation by increasing or decreasing the hours they work and that budget constraints are nonlinear when individuals have unearned income, are involuntarily unemployed or underemployed.

This chapter discusses how queer cultural spaces came to emerge in a city dominated by capitalist ideologies and material consumption. Specifically, it uses the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival 2004 (HKLGFF) and HKLGFF 2005 as case studies to facilitate a discussion on the contested relations between a politics of consumption, the claim for queer visibility, and the emerging representation of lesbian desires in Hong Kong independent film and video. The HKLGFF has only just begun to understand the needs of local lesbian communities. Apart from continuing and expanding its lesbian programming, it should also partner itself with community organizations and media-arts groups in order to facilitate innovative programming. Furthermore, the chapter defines lesbian desires as same-sex desires between women, regardless of the politics of sexual identification, thereby including women with bisexual and lesbian sexualities.

This chapter establishes a detailed historical context for interpreting archaeological data from Don and Lion Islands and other diasporic Asian communities. It provides information on traditional and changing patterns of material consumption in British Columbia, China, and Japan that affected the choices of and constraints upon Asian migrants. The chapter particularly focuses on diet and alcohol consumption, which are strongly represented archaeologically. Also addressed are issues of racism, legal status, and emerging nationalism in the homeland that affected how Asian migrants perceived themselves, how they were perceived by members of the host society, and which shaped the nature of their consumer habits.

This chapter compares the Chinese and Japanese sites on Don and Lion Islands in terms of everyday consumer habits, sources and access to local and imported consumer goods, and in terms of the impact of racism, economics, and consumer desire. It brings together archaeological, archival, and contextual information to create a picture of how diasporan movements and transnational connections between home and host countries shaped everyday lives, identities, and consumer habits of Asian migrants. This discussion is followed by broader conclusions about the value of transnational and diasporic approaches to the archaeology of displaced populations and the role of material consumption in the process of collective ethnic identification among diasporic communities. Finally, it offers suggestions for future research and argues that by adopting transnational and diasporic approaches, archaeologists can make significant contributions to broader theoretical debates in the social sciences.

Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, is a neglected statesman. A sometime diplomat, he was Charles II’s longest-serving secretary of state and held the highest household office for ten years, but his artistic patronage has most conspicuously been overlooked and its political significance underestimated. Informed by his experiences abroad, he appreciated the power of the arts to influence and impress and used the cultural mediation of the English diplomatic network in his control to help skilfully fashion his domestic political identity. Through judicious display of architecture, paintings, sculpture, and furniture, Arlington created a cultural world that confirmed both his close relationship with Charles II and his dominance of foreign affairs. This chapter reconsiders Arlington’s contributions as a statesman through his considered use of material consumption and artistic patronage and thereby illuminates corners of cultural practice which are situated firmly in the political sphere.

This chapter is an in-depth examination of the concepts of transnationalism and diaspora, how they relate to one another, how archaeologists and scholars of Asian America have adapted them to their research, and how they can be mobilized to develop a model for understanding and comparing aspects of migrant life through material culture. It is accompanied by a discussion of the nature of social identity, how it is constructed and maintained, and the role of material consumption in this process. Particular attention is paid to the process of dispersal and to ongoing relationships between home and host societies. The goal is to develop an interpretive framework for the archaeological study of Asian migrants and other displaced peoples that facilitates inter-ethnic comparison and offers a complement and contrast to nation-based models.

This chapter describes the east country in June, when drought gave way to showers and hot thunderstorms, and the summer solstice accelerated hard, the days about to shorten. It looks at the Thicks, an ancient woodland of mature oak and holly. The oak drew the eye, but the smooth holly were exceptional. There is more than meets the eye in these old woods: druid ceremonies, the magic of mistletoe, and strange goings-on. The chapter then considers the appealing idea of a contemplative economy. It argues that if people spent more time immersed in nature and attentive to one another, then perhaps there would be less need for material consumption.