Week 1 – Kathy Peiss “making of modern consumer culture”

 What does she mean by modern? What is modernity?

Modernity is a process that modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term
describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally
arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. is described

 What is a consumer?

–noun
1. a person or thing that consumes.
2. Economics . a person or organization that uses a commodity or service.
3. Ecology . an organism, usually an animal, that feeds on plants or other animals.

To consume:
–verb (used with object)
1. to destroy or expend by use; use up.
2. to eat or drink up; devour.
3. to destroy, as by decomposition or burning: Fire consumed the forest.
4. to spend (money, time, etc.) wastefully.
5. to absorb; engross: consumed with curiosity.
–verb (used without object)
6. to undergo destruction; waste away.
7. to use or use up consumer goods.

 What is culture?

Culture

1. Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture
2. An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the
capacity for symbolic thought and social learning
3. The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution,
organization or group