ABSTRACT
This chapter presents information and analyses that enhance our understanding of the interaction of culture, gender and consumption. In This cross-cultural study, I draw upon a database composed of the Human Relation Area Files, extant ethnographic research by other trained scholars, and my own ethnographic fieldwork. In searching for the influence of gender relations on consumption, and the ways in which gender influences what and how we consume on a cross-cultural basis, numerous considerations arise. While I cannot address every possible source or outcome of gendering, I consider the following: sexual division of labour; gender relations, identities and roles; the part played by the family and the household; and influences of globalisation, development and consumerism. The result is a framework designed to assess overall cross-cultural differences and similarities in gender as related to consumption in traditional and developing societies around the globe. Further research should elaborate upon and extend this framework.
