COMMODITIZING CULTURE: THE PRODUCTION, EXCHANGE, AND CONSUMPTION OF COURO VEGETAL FROM THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON

Abstract

Many communities strive to increase incomes in the global economy by commoditizing their culture. They do this by selling traditional crafts and clothing imbued with cultural meanings, and performing traditional dances and rituals for tourists. This article, based on the theoretical work of Marcel Mauss and anthropological studies of gifts, commodity exchange, and consumption examines how forest communities in the Brazilian Amazon, with the assistance of “cultural brokers,” use the World Wide Web to market culture-imbued products fashioned from latex extracted from rubber trees. It argues that by providing potential consumers with details of extractor livelihoods, including productive activities and rituals, and their sustainable use of the forest, cultural brokers facilitate developing social bonds between buyers and Amazon extractors. This suggests that businesses can play an important role in helping communities add cultural value to products; however, these global marketers must ensure that communities understand the socio-economic and cultural changes that market activities can bring, and prepare them to administer operations and growth.