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8 - Signs of Power and the Power of Signs

Semiotics, Materiality, and the Political Economy of Status and Consumption

from Part III - Continuity and Discontinuity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2021

By
Alf Hornborg
Edited by
Paul Roscoe  and
Cindy Isenhour
Paul Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of Maine
Cindy Isenhour
Affiliation:
University of Maine
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Summary

This chapter uses ethnohistorical information on prehispanic Andean kingdoms to illuminate how semiotic and material aspects of political economy are intertwined in premodern and modern approaches to various kinds of signs of social status. It argues that both anthropologists and mainstream economists tend to focus on semiotic aspects of human societies while largely ignoring their material conditions and repercussions, which are fundamental to grasping the role of identity and consumption in aggravating global inequalities and unsustainability.

Keywords

Consumptionidentitymaterialitypolitical economysemioticsstatus competition
Type
Chapter
Information
Consumption, Status, and Sustainability
Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives
 , pp. 193 - 221
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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