ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses how Oriental rugs as mass-produced commodities became an important part of middle-class home furnishings in twentieth-century Europe and the United States. She traces how Orientalist narratives and imaginaries invested value in carpets and put them into circulation. The author argues that the discourse on Orientalia in general and Persian carpets in particular produces value, regulates labor, and channels desire through consumerism. She shows that the discourse on Orientalia is not secondary but central to the process in which these commodities are produced and consumed. The author proposes the concept of civilizational commodities to describe how Orientalia were not only represented as exotic commodities coming from distant and mysterious lands, but they also constituted cultural distinctions and civilizational hierarchies.
