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Cited by 4,867Cross-Cultural and Social AnalysisAnthropological Studies and InsightsPolitical Economy and Marxism

The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process

Kopytoff, Igor·1986·The Social Life of Things
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511819582.004
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Abstract

For the economist, commodities simply are. That is, certain things and rights to things are produced, exist, and can be seen to circulate through the economic system as they are being exchanged for other things, usually in exchange for money. This view, of course, frames the commonsensical definition of a commodity: an item with use value that also has exchange value. I shall, for the moment, accept this definition, which should suffice for raising certain preliminary issues, and I shall expand on it as the argument warrants. From a cultural perspective, the production of commodities is also a cultural and cognitive process: commodities must be not only produced materially as things, but also culturally marked as being a certain kind of thing. Out of the total range of things available in a society, only some of them are considered appropriate for marking as commodities. Moreover, the same thing may be treated as a commodity at one time and not at another. And finally, the same thing may, at the same time, be seen as a commodity by one person and as something else by another. Such shifts and differences in whether and when a thing is a commodity reveal a moral economy that stands behind the objective economy of visible transactions.

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  • Debates about the power of things are central to Latour's theories, and anthropologists such as Kopytoff, Gell, Miller, Ingold and Hodder have long discussed them.

    “Likewise, while debates about the power of things are central to Latour ' s theories, anthropologists such as Igor Kopytoff (1986), Alfred Gell (1998), Daniel Miller (2005), Tim Ingold (2011) and archaeologists like Ian Hodder (2012) have long discussed them.”

    From Bruno Latour and the anthropology of the moderns (2013) · cites this paper as Kopytoff 1986

  • Through personal and social networks the singularity of a deity's power gradually emerges.

    “Thus, through personal and social networks the singularity of a deity's power gradually emerges (cf. Kopytoff 1986).”

    From Conceptualizing Gods through Statues: A Study of Personification and Localization in Taiwan (2008) · cites this paper as Kopytoff 1986

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Authors
Kopytoff, I.
Affiliations
University of Pennsylvania (US)
Corresponding author
Kopytoff, Igor
Venue
The Social Life of Things
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
1986-04-30
Pages
64-92
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511819582.004
OpenAlex
W1520548237
Cited by
4,867
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 148 · 2025: 244 · 2024: 215 · 2023: 208 · 2022: 246 · 2021: 290 · 2020: 349 · 2019: 280 · 2018: 259 · 2017: 174 · 2016: 196 · 2015: 198 · 2014: 221 · 2013: 205 · 2012: 184
FWCI
89.88
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 10263 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Cross-Cultural and Social Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Anthropology › Anthropological Studies and Insights
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Political Economy and Marxism
Keywords
commodification, commodities, use value and exchange value, moral economy, cultural cognition

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