This research utilises the concepts in Miller’s anthropology of consumption (1987; 1988;
1994; 1995a; 1998a; 1998b) to enable an analysis of social relations, including gender,
through looking at what and how people consume. Goods not only express individual
identity and status, but are used as a means of objectifying personal and social systems of
value, which, in the lives of people living in a central ward in the village of Mochudi,
Botswana, signify the importance of social relationships. An analysis of social change since
the 1920s and 1930s when Isaac Schapera (1940, 1971) spent a period of fieldwork in the
same location and wrote extensively on married life here, is undertaken through familial and
life-course events.
Informants took photographs of objects, the significance of which is explored through oneto-one
enquiry. Generational and gendered differences in consumption choices point to the
stage in life reached and lifestyle. An older woman is found to gain pleasure from the
purchase of plastic chairs, ensuring she has enough for family or communal events, where all
who turn up may expect to partake of a feast; it is through these chairs that social relations
are objectified and her wish to be identified as a ‘good’ woman is fulfilled. Similar
projections can be made with older men and desire for livestock – the ultimate signifier of
masculinity and role of ‘provider’ - which are considered ‘useful’ as a means to sustain the
social importance and inclusivity of communal gatherings.
Young, single men and women are found to conform more to the stereotypical view of
consumption as the development of individual identity (Miller 1998b:35). Yet here, within
courtship relationships, material things are utilised as a means of expressing and assessing
love. This may have become out-of-kilter, with young men under pressure to compete with
gifts for the affections of women who ultimately can decide to walk away. Marriage is
constructed around consumption. Time slips the distinction between courtship and
engagement, co-habitation and marriage, or even leads to indefinite delay. Marital relations
replace courtship gifts with ‘material acts of caring’ (Miller 1998b) such as provisioning on
behalf of husbands, and washing of clothes by wives.
The family home in the village draws people back for kinship events, such as weddings and
funerals, which act to connect people together. White weddings, driven by the fantasy of the
bride, are big consumptive events, and yet may be read as being less about conspicuous
consumption than an objectification of love which carefully interweaves kinship, tradition
and modernity. Through the crisis of AIDS, funerals have altered to reflect a sensitivity which
places importance on sober and modest approaches, yet also combines this with a need to
ensure the many people who attend are well fed. Large social gatherings reflect the Tswana
value system in which consumption acts to reinforce social structure, gender identities and
family and tribal belonging, and yet, over time, also acts to bring about change.