Richard Sosis addresses the issue why religious groups use energy taxing rituals. Rituals force members to participate excessively and proves their commitment to their community. Accordingly, all rituals must be excessive. Perhaps American behaviors centered around consumption are also ritualistic behaviors that help separate Americans from non-Americans for unifying purposes.
Sosis defines a ritual as a method of identifying with a group. “A member must assure everyone that he or she will participate in acquiring food or in defending the group” (Sosis, 2). Modern American society, which has no central religion or culture, instead unites its nation with a desire to consume. Walmart, MTV, McDonalds are icons of American mass consumption. By purchasing and wasting constantly, Americans give each other the impression that it is okay to continue their habits.
For example, the average US household wastes 50% of their food according to a study by the University of Arizona (Clifton). Additionally another study from the same university observed peoples' trash bins. It concluded that, “Rich households, perhaps wanting to be seen to be eating healthily, claimed to consume less of it than they did, whereas poor ones, possibly indulging in wishful thinking, claimed to eat more” (Economist). It is a common notion in American societies that surplus is healthy. Having a lot of something is good.
In fact, Americans in the United States enjoy holidays centered around consuming with others. Thanksgiving, for example, is centered around creating an abundance of food, specifically a stuffed turkey, and feeding their family and close friends. A study on Thanksgiving by Melanie Wallendorf and Eric J. Arnould focus on the ubiquitous principal of proving one's wealth that Thanksgiving inspires. “Thanksgiving day celebrations both mark and prove to participants their ability to meet basic needs amply through consumption” (Wallendorf, 13).
American society has used their consumer society model as method of recognizing themselves. Although other countries participate in consumption as well, Americans are often given credit for inventing it. Therefore, it is likely that American society relies on its culture of consumption to keep reliable consumers in, and conservationists out.
Sources
Clifton, Coles.“America Wastes Half Its Food”. Futurist; May/Jun2005, Vol. 39 Issue 3, p12-12, 2/5p
Economist; 2/28/2009, Vol. 390 Issue 8620, special section p4-4
Sosis, Richard. "The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual". American Scientist. December 6, 2008
Wallendorf, Melanie; Arnould, Eric J. "We Gather Together": Consumption Rituals of Thanksgiving Day. The Journal of Consumer Research. Vol. 18. No. 1 (Jun., 1991). pp. 13-31
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The picture of the man pushing his cart with all of the stuff flying into it sums up what the dominate culture in this country is: consumer culture. If you ever have the time, I recommend reading Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism by James Twitchell. His theory on American consumerism is that we are not victims of commercialism, but we eagerly participate in it! We define ourselves by purchasing certain "goods" (Twitchell asks the question, why do we call them "goods"?), and in doing so, we are bonded together. We might not need that "good", but we do need to be associated with the label. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your blog about American consumers and how we over-indulge in so many aspects of our lives. Once I came upon an interesting statistic that more avocados are consumed on the 5th of May and Superbowl weekend than at any other time in the USA. It would be interesting to look more closely at how other cultures have adopted the over-consumption characteristic of Americans culture into their own practices within their culture. Overall I appreciate the “guilt trip” that your article inadvertently placed upon me. I was oh-so tempted to purchase hip stainless water bottle when they first came out. However, I realized that there is nothing wrong with the Nalgene bottle I already own and why would I buy yet another bottle when the purpose of my first bottle was to reduce waste. As a society we need to take the responsibility of decreasing our own personal consumption.
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