ABSTRACT
Material Culture within the Department of Anthropology at UCL can claim to have played a major role in initiating the study of consumption in anthropology through the work of Mary Douglas, who produced one of the two foundational texts while at this department. For example consumption studies at UCL are very different from the most popular writings on this topic in the USA. The importance of understanding the local context of consumption as opposed to production is also evident when we turn to more specific qualities of the drinks. This chapter shows, by example, how ordinary vulgar mass consumption is proficient in sublating the general form back into specificity. In collusion with the drinkers that consume it and often the local companies that bottle it, the chapter is intended to form part of a counter movement that would push Coca-Cola downwards back into the muddy dispersed regions of black sweet drinks.
