Consumption, Status, and Sustainability
Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives

Focuses information from across time and culture on the relationships among status competition, consumption, and planetary sustainability.

Paul Roscoe (Edited by), Cindy Isenhour (Edited by)

9781108836043, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 August 2021

300 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.64 kg

'A strongly diachronic collection, the pieces within this book form a comprehensive examination of status and consumption. Suitable for those conducting research in the fields of anthropology, sociology, geography, archaeology, or any environmentally oriented social science ... Recommended.' J. Asselin, Choice Connect

This volume addresses current concerns about the climate and environmental sustainability by exploring one of the key drivers of contemporary environmental problems: the role of status competition in generating what we consume, and what we throw away, to the detriment of the planet. Across time and space, humans have pursued social status in many different ways - through ritual purity, singing or dancing, child-bearing, bodily deformation, even headhunting. In many of the world's most consumptive societies, however, consumption has become closely tied to how individuals build and communicate status. Given this tight link, people will be reluctant to reduce consumption levels – and environmental impact -- and forego their ability to communicate or improve their social standing.  Drawing on cross-cultural and archaeological evidence, this book asks how a stronger understanding of the links between status and consumption across time, space, and culture might bend the curve towards a more sustainable future.

Preface
Introduction
1. Standing out, fitting in, and the consumption of the world: sustainable consumption in a status-conscious world Paul Roscoe and Cindy Isenhour
Part I. Status Competition and Hierarchy in Human Societies: 2. 'Status' pursuits in the past, and the condition we are in Brian Hayden
3. Conflict management, status competition and consumption Paul Roscoe
Part II. Variability in Status Consumption: 4. Status competition in the ancient past? Tracing antecedence in the Mimbres region of the US southwest Will G. Russell and Michelle Hegmon
5. Leadership, the funding of power, and sustainability in the Prehispanic Mesoamerican world Gary M. Feinman
Part III. Continuity and Discontinuity: 6. The never-ending feast redux: food, status competition, and the anthropology of overconsumption Kaori O'Connor
7. The status of archaeological knowledge in the study of status: notes on classical Greece Staša Babi?
8. Signs of power and the power of signs: semiotics, materiality, and the political economy of status and consumption Alf Hornborg
9. Status, consumption, and intersectionality in sustainability research Sophorntavy Vorng
Part IV. Bending the Curve: 10. The higher monkey climb: shame as a tool in seeking a sustainable world Richard Wilk
11. Ecological routes to social status and urban inclusion: theorizing citizenship through waste work Manisha Anantharaman
12. Making the market work: socially embedded economies, the climate, and consumption Cindy Isenhour
13. Conclusion: changes in status, consumption and sustainability Cindy Isenhour and Paul Roscoe.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK], The environment [RN], Earth sciences, geography, environment, planning [R], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Anthropology [JHM], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Society & social sciences [J], Archaeology [HD], Humanities [H]