A Theory of Shopping

by Daniel Miller

A Theory of Shopping offers a highly original perspective on one of our most basic everyday activities - shopping. We commonly assume that shopping is primarily concerned with individuals and materialism. But Miller rejects this assumption and follows the surprising route of analysing shopping by means of an analogy with anthropological studies of sacrificial ritual. He argues that the act of purchasing goods is almost always linked to other social relations, and most especially those based on love and care. The ethnographic sections of the book are based on a year's study of shopping on a street in North London. This provides the basis for a sensitive description of the issues the shopper confronts when making decisions as to what to buy. Miller develops a theory to account for these observations, arguing that shopping typically consists of three major stages which reflect the three key stages of many rites of sacrifice. In both shopping and sacrifice the ultimate intention is to constitute others as desiring subjects. Finally the book examines certain historical shifts in both subjects and objects of devotion, in particular, ideals of gender and love. This treatment of shopping from the perspective of comparative anthropology represents a highly innovative approach to one of the most familiar tasks of our daily lives. Written in a clear and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to students and academics in anthropology, sociology and cultural studies, as well as anybody who wants to consider more deeply the nature of their own everyday activities.

Genres: Anthropology, Material Culture, Nonfiction, Sociology

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Daniel Miller is Professor of Anthropology at UCL, author/editor of 37 books including Tales from Facebook, Digital Anthropology (Ed. with H. Horst), The Internet: an Ethnographic Approach (with D. Slater), Webcam (with J. Sinanan), The Comfort of Things, A Theory of Shopping, and Stuff.

Reviews

[Kasia · Rating 1 out of 5]

the worst thing i've ever read (or maybe i'm just stupid)

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miller does here what anthropology/ethnography is about, as far as many of its practitioners are concerned – he explores the ordinary and the everyday, in this case shopping as in basic provisioning. If it were an old style ethnography of some distant society, we'd talk about it as food gathering techniques, but in this case it is an ethnography of an area of North London.

He does two useful and important things – he explores the importance of the 'treat' – the thing we buy in most/every shopping outing that is special and for someone (maybe us) that by definition makes everything else ordinary – and 'thrift', a practice and discourse where spending money become saving (I got three for the price of two/saved money by buying something I didn't need because it was cheap and so forth). Secondly, and much more importantly, he explores everyday provisioning not as duped consumers being taken in by promotions and advertising but shopping as a kind of ritual practice that becomes sacrifice – so where a thing or activity become a way of sacralising something else – and in this case it is about making sacred the household/family within.

It is a challenging and in places difficult argument, but it is in the end very rewarding even if I don't buy into all of it. A valuable and important scholarly contribution to consumption studies, to anthropologies of the western world, and studies of gender.

[Elin Söderholm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bara för att man har en hot take behöver man inte skriva en hel bok om det. Dessutom aldrig varit med om någon som refererar till sig själv så mycket, typ varannan referens är till tidigare eller kommande verk av författaren!! Jätteostrukturerat argument, vet inte riktigt vad han ville komma fram till helt, men vissa saker var rimliga. Vissa var till och med faktiskt intressanta på riktigt! Hade gett den 2,5 om jag kunde

[Ella Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

wasn't THE most dense anthropological ethnography book I've read

[Yana Sanko · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the beauty of the idea to compare shopping as an activity to sacrificial ritual. This wasn't easy vacation reading, but its incredibly insightful. After reading two Miller's books i think i need them all.

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Miller's work! Accessible and a great alternative perspective to the concepts of reciprocity and materialism often argued in anthropology - there's more to buying than most of us think!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Read for uni; review soon]

[غيداء الجويسر]

استعرت هذا الكتاب من مكتبة الجامعة اليوم. لقيته بالصدفة. استهواني. خاصة انه دراسة اثنوجرافية ❤

[Yana Manyukhina · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my review of the book please go to http://ediblematters.wordpress.com/20...