ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to put forward the perspective of enviromateriality as a framework of analysis that links material culture studies with political ecology. It elaborates on the three phases of the enviromateriality model as it pertains to mahogany and the artefact, the Gibson Les Paul guitar. The first phase considers the material in question. The second phase is the building and making. The third phase is the consumption of the finished commodity. The chapter covers some of the dynamics of mahogany harvest in Southern Mexico in the Maya Forest, as well as Gibson's entry into the 'sustainable' mahogany trade. It argues that enviromateriality enables us to break the impasse between material and materiality. Marx initiated the critique with the discussion of commodity fetishism and capitalism's power to transform materials into commodities while hiding their real value, but as Carrier reminds people, it goes beyond that. It is also about abstracting people, processes, places, whether material or not.
