ABSTRACT
Why “signification between material objects and social station … strives to remain relatively uncomplex and controlled” Daniel Miller does not reveal. But he is well aware of the consequences when this breaks down: people lower in a given hierarchy will fulfill their aspirations by changing their behavior, dress and consumption “since it now becomes possible to mistake a poor nobleman for a wealthy trader.” This is no sooner done than, Miller attests, the privileged, in turn, attempt to maintain differentials, since they have
access to knowledge about goods and their prestige connotation. By this process, fashion emerges as the means for continuing those forms of social discrimination previously regulated by sumptuary rulings. In other words, demand for goods may flourish in the context of ambiguity in social hierarchy. 1
