Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption, and Media in Papua New Guinea

Foster, Robert J.

ISBN 10: 0253215498 / ISBN 13: 9780253215499

Published by Indiana University Press, 2002

About this Item

Unmarked. Bumped corner. Illustrated. Argues that the contested process of nation making in Papua New Guinea unfolds through organized politics and mundane engagements with commodities and mass media. Foster's ethnographic perspective draws official policy documents, letters to the editor, school textbooks, song lyrics, advertisements, and other materials. 202p. Measures 6x9.25 inches.

Seller Inventory # 28405

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Materializing the Nation: Commodities, Consumption, and Media in Papua New Guinea
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0253215498
• ISBN 13: 9780253215499
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 17 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

"Foster shows us how seemingly banal activities like making a phone call, chewing betel nut, watching a Coke commercial may give important insights into the ways in which the nation is constructed, materialized or contested."―Orvar Löfgren, author of On Holiday: A History of Vacationing

Why, in the current era of globalization, does nationality remain an important dimension of personal and collective identities? In Materializing the Nation, Robert J. Foster argues that the contested process of nation making in Papua New Guinea unfolds not only through organized politics but also through mundane engagements with commodities and mass media. He offers a thoughtful critique of recent approaches to nationalism and consumption and an ethnographic perspective on constructs of the nation found in official policy documents, letters to the editor, school textbooks, song lyrics, advertisements, and other materials. This volume will appeal to readers interested in the links among nationalism, consumption, and media, in Melanesia and elsewhere.

About the Author

Robert J. Foster is Professor of Anthropology and Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Rochester. He is author of Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia and Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea and editor of Nation Making: Emergent Identities in Postcolonial Melanesia.