Moderator: Paul Smith (Cultural Studies, George Mason University)
“ Sites of Consumption: New Approaches”
Michael Ryan (Sociology, University of Maryland)
Most approaches to the study of space have focused on two key areas--urban spaces and spaces of consumption. Both of these areas, in turn, are becoming increasingly commodified and McDonaldized (Ritzer 2004b). This paper will focus primarily on the recnt history of American consumption settings to make the argument that they have evolved from cathedrals (places to visit on special occasions) to landscapes (extended geographic locales) and finally to communities (places in which we make our homes). A closer look at Auge's (1995) notion of a non-place, Foucault's (1986) idea of heterotopias, and Ritzer's (2003) idea of islands of the living dead will help analyze particular sites of consumption by providing a more integrative vision of the history of consumption based in a social and cultural geography.
“Jewelry and Display: Black Consumption and Power”
Stacy Cumberbatch (Cultural Studies, George Mason University)
Using the specific example of jewelry display, this paper examines the relationship between colonial and African histories of displaying black bodies and the current state of body display within rap. It explores the hypotheses that today's body display in rap is used as a form of resistance to pre-existing negative codes that black bodies carry from colonial history. Consequently, the paper argues that the display is intended as a method to inscribe the rappers' bodies with alternative meanings that challenge both existing and pre-existing ‘colonialist' assumptions. The paper separates the display according to gender, and argues that male rappers display their bodies in hyper-masculine ways in order to appropriate black female bodies. The jewelry therefore becomes a signifier of not only of economic success, but also of sexual prowess. Essentially therefore, the paper engages notions of gendered power at the level of discourse and the consumption of objects in black America.
“The Secret History of Primitive Accumulation in America”
Robert Gehl (Cultural Studies, George Mason University)
In Marx, primitive accumulation is the penultimate step in the history of the development of capitalism. In order for money to become capital, and in order for surplus value to be extracted from labor by way of capital, the labor force must be “freed” from the land and therefore the means of sustenance and production. This process must occur, argues Marx, before capitalism can come into being. This essay explores Marx's theory of primitive accumulation but specifically in the U.S. context, and with a particular focus on the decimation of indigenous Americans, the economics of slavery (including the economics of slave breeding and the use of trade protectionism by Virginians like George Mason), and southern American agriculture. To this end, it utilizes cultural theories from Manning Marable and Angela Davis and economic theories from Charles Austin Beard, Alfred Conrad, and Marx. Finally, it explores the lingering effects of this unique primitive accumulation, which still echo today in discourses surrounding immigration, gender, and globalization.