Consumption, Status, and Sustainability

Ecological and Anthropological Perspectives

Paul Roscoe, Cindy Isenhour

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781108836043
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108871686
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Standing Out, Fitting In, and the Consumption of the World: Sustainable Consumption in a Status-Conscious World
• Part I Status Competition and Hierarchy in Human Societies
• Part II Variability in Status Consumption
• Part III Continuity and Discontinuity
• Part IV Bending the Curve
• Index