ABSTRACT
How far, and in what way, are the people of Shitayama-cho concerned with 'raising their present standards of consumption'? In traditionally oriented, technologically stationary societies, the standards of living (using 'standard' in its normative sense of 'level of living considered appropriate') of its members tend to be fixed. No overall improvement for the whole of society is expected or considered possible, and the relative wealth of its members is thought to be, and accepted as being, ineluctably determined by status, which is generally inherited and only exceptionally acquired.
