Igor Kopytoff examines commoditization and the values of commodities as a cultural and

cognitive process, by examining the biographies of things rather than just production and
exchanges. Kopytoff defines a commodity to be a thing that has use value and that can be
exchanged in a discrete transaction for a counterpart, the very fact of exchange indicating that the
counterpart has, in the immediate context, an equivalent value. However, in order to establish
these values of commodities, Kopytoff argues different things must be selected and made
cognitively similar and dissimilar, thereby introducing the notion of different spheres of
exchange. It is important to understand this concept, because goods are not commoditized in a
single sphere of exchange as Marx supposes. Rather, they are exchanged in multiple spheres
each with their own value systems operating independently of one another. Thus,
commodities can be understood within the context of multiple exchange spheres and can
circulate in more than one exchange sphere (allowing people to exchange yams for a pot as in
example of the Tiv).
Criteria distinguishing different spheres of exchange varies among societies spheres of
exchange are established within a cultural context, where the systems of classification reflect
the structure and the cultural resources of the societies in question. Kopytoff also asserts that
hierarchies may be imposed on the sphere of exchange.
The three spheres of exchange Bohannon describes in the Tiv society subsistence,
prestige, rights-in-persons can be applied generally to Western society as well, with money as
the link between the spheres (versus the brass rods the Tiv used). However, I believe Western
society has another sphere of exchange involving cultural and social capital. For example, people
with high social capital are able to use their capital to get their children accepted into prestigious
universities or jobs. Like yams and pots, social capital and acceptance into such institutions are
not comparable outside the conceptual spheres of exchange.