ABSTRACT
The society of producers which characterized the mercantilist ethos and the industrial world set the pace for the advance of a society where consumption was the priority. The quest for diversity and the adoption of cultural consumption were two important tenets of neoliberalism. As K. G. Donohue outlined, the fear of poverty cemented the passage from a producerist to a consumerist society, but poverty remains. Whatever the case may be, liberalism and democracy were two key factors that accompanied American sociology from the outset, even now. England gave Darwin to the World, but the United States gave to Darwinism an unusually quick and sympathetic reception. Consumption and consumerism seem not to be new or at best they are not monopolized by contemporary society and can be studied in other contexts and times. Tenets of capitalism are based on attractiveness of elaborated products that can be sold to a wider net of consumers.
