ABSTRACT
It is now commonplace to argue that the interconnectedness of cultures brought about by the transnational flow of images, commodities, and peoples is leading to the formation of a global culture, dominated by transnational corporations, and increasingly Americanized and commercialized (Mattelart et al. 1984; Schiller 1969, 1973). The acceleration of global flow by communications technologies means that cultural forms (for example the Indian “sacred soap” the Mahabharata) are available for worldwide consumption on a mass scale. Anthropologists and cultural historians, in response to the development of cultural studies in advanced capitalist societies, are now beginning to analyze how consumers in all sorts of settings create or conform to personal and social identities through acts of consumption, and how commodities provide a resource for developing shared, collective frames of reference (Appadurai 1986; Douglas and Isherwood 1979; Miller 1987, 1992). Indeed, Miller only came to study the reception of the American soap Young and Restless in Trinidad (Miller 1992) because no one would talk to him while it was on, and so he was forced to watch with his informants.
