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<i>Material Culture in Europe and China, 1400-1800: The Rise of Consumerism</i> (review)

1998; University of Hawaii Press; Volume: 5; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cri.1998.0130

1527-9367

Ina Asim,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

REVIEWS Samuel Adrian Miles Adshead. Material Culture in Europe and China, 1400-1800: The Rise ofConsumerism. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. ix, 279 pp. Hardcover $59.95, isbn 0-312-17285-0. This book is a kaleidoscope ofmaterial culture in the period under consideration. It presents a clearly organized mosaic ofinterrelated economic and cultural processes and changes that unfold into equally well structured facets ofChinese and European material history and their respective influences on production, trade, and consumerism. The author has given us a work that combines all the prerequisites that qualify the book for a readership interested in the vast field ofthe Age ofDiscovery and the beginnings ofa global economy. One may ask "How can anyone possibly write about material culture in Europe and China in a period of four centuries in 279 pages?" I dare to say that this has been accomplished successfully insofar as the author exercises complete freedom ofchoice in applying the structures and ideas ofrelated or merely adjoining sciences as paradigms to develop his own concepts. This makes for reading that is at once interesting and challenging. In Adshead's book, Heraclitus meets Roger Penrose via Su Song's astronomical clock of1094 in a reconstruction ofJoseph Needham. With a twinkle in his eye the author tells us that it all got started after a "long day's shopping at Harrods, just before Christmas 1991" (preface, p. ix). The result is a fireworks display ofthoughts and ideas produced from a storehouse ofyears of extensive study in the fields of history, philosophy, sociology, sinology, psychology, theology, and politics. These ideas then shaped the vivid picture of the "Rise of Consumerism," which frequently keeps the reader occupied with solving cryptic allusions. The symmetry ofthe contents is mirrored in the structure of the book, without sacrificing content for composition. The work is divided into seven chapters, each comprising roughly thirty pages. Every chapter gives an introduction to its topic, which is then followed by a tripartite analysis of the essenríaL·, accessories, and extras of the respective commodities discussed. The structure consciously follows these three dimensions offashion just as consumerism is dictated by their© 1998 by University innerlogic ofdemand and supplys. ofHawai'i PressThe initial chapter, which provides an outline ofthe main chapters to follow, is a general introduction to material culture (pp. 1-30) and the phenomenon of consumerism as opposed to consumption. In the subsequent chapters ofthe first 346 China Review International: Vol. 5, No. 2, Fall 1998 part, consumerism is analyzed according to three essential commodities: "Consumerism and Food" (chapter 2, pp. 31-66), "Consumerism and Dress" (chapter 3, pp. 67-101), and "Consumerism and Shelter" (chapter 4, pp. 102-137). Influenced by Braudel's observation that only after the year 1400 did people for the first time have "a genuine choice" in consumption, the first part ofthe book draws our attention to the process ofhow natural resources were formed into cultural objects and used as food, dress, or shelter instigated by the problems of thermoregulation . Examples related to food and dress are given as sorghum and rice, fish, soya, tea and coffee, silk, cotton, fur, and linen. Representative commodities in the category of shelter are wood, adobe, ceramics, carpets, and gardens. Relying on the supposition by Lévi-Strauss that every institution, custom, or myth contains a rational yet often unarticulated structure, the author introduces, in the second part of the book, the superstructure of mental patterns that foster consumer predilections. What did utilities such as heat, water, and light mean to daily life (chapter 5, "Consumerism and Utilities," pp. 138-171)? In chapter 6, "Consumerism and Information" (pp. 172-206), the ideological value of the spoken word is discussed in the context of the importance of dramatic performance, which Adshead, in connection to Chinese culture, calls "a counterattack by speech against script and print" (p. 187). Speech is emphasized as a fundamental precursor to the privileges of literacy. The role ofliteracy in Adshead's system is seen as that of a catalyst to the development of the systems, materials, and implements of writing. These, respectively, became central to commercial systems in their different cultural spheres until the invention of printing; for example...