Commodity branding did not emerge with contemporary global capitalism. In fact, the authors of this volume show that the cultural history of branding stretches back to the beginnings of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, and can be found in various permutations in places as diverse as the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Early Modern Europe. What the contributions in this volume also vividly document, both in past social contexts and recent ones as diverse as the kingdoms of Cameroon, Socialist Hungary or online eBay auctions, is the need to understand branded commodities as part of a broader continuum with techniques of gift-giving, ritual, and sacrifice. Bringing together the work of cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, this volume obliges specialists in marketing and economics to reassess the relationship between branding and capitalism, as well as adding an important new concept to the work of economic anthropologists and archaeologists.
University College London Institute of Archaeology Publications
Andrew Bevan & David Wengrow are lecturers at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Commodity branding did not emerge with contemporary global capitalism. In fact, the authors of this volume show that the cultural history of branding stretches back to the beginnings of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, and can be found in various permutations in places as diverse as the Bronze Age Mediterranean and Early Modern Europe. What the contributions in this volume also vividly document, both in past social contexts and recent ones as diverse as the kingdoms of Cameroon, Socialist Hungary or online EBay auctions, is the need to understand branded commodities as part of a broader continuum with techniques of gift-giving, ritual, and sacrifice. Bringing together the work of cultural anthropologists and archaeologists, this volume obliges specialists in marketing and economics to reassess the relationship between branding and capitalism, as well as adding an important new concept to the work of economic anthropologists and archaeologists.
The contributions in this volume document, both in past social contexts and recent ones, the need to understand branded commodities as part of a broader continuum with techniques of gift-giving, ritual, and sacrifice.
Chapter 1 Introduction, David Wengrow;
Chapter 2 Making and Marking
Relationships, Andrew Bevan;
Chapter 3 The Work of an Istanbulite
Imitasyoncu, Magdalena Cr?ciun;
Chapter 4 The Attribution of Authenticity to
Real and Fake Branded Commodities, Rosana Pinheiro-Machado;
Chapter 5 The
Real One, Ferenc Hammer;
Chapter 6 Royal Branding and the Techniques of the
Body, the Self, and Power in West Cameroon, Jean-Pierre Warmer;
Chapter 7
Commodities, Brands, and Village Economies in the Classic Maya Lowlands,
Jason Yaeger;
Chapter 8 Lincoln Green and Real Dutch Java Prints, Gracia
Clark;
Chapter 9 Of Marks, Prints, Pots, and Becherovka, Marcos
Martinón-Torres;
Chapter 10 The Second-Hand Brand, Alison J. Clarke;
Edited by Bevan, Andrew; Wengrow, David
