This article explores the work of fetish in practices of consumption at a charity shop in contemporary Margate (UK). Here fetish relates to a specific semiotic ideology (described by Keane in Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter, 2007) that acknowledges the personality and history of objects. More specifically, fetish appears as the material property of old objects ‘with character’ to combine different remnants of the past and allow for or resist multiple meanings and stories. To argue that objects are fetishized in Margate is to say that in this English town we encounter a semiotic ideology that challenges the ‘moral narrative of modernity’ that claims individual freedom and agency.
This article introduces the special issue reflecting on the influence of the book Material culture and mass consumption by Daniel Miller on interdisciplinary debates in social science in Brazil. Here we review the main arguments presented in the book - yet to be translated into Portuguese - while also considering some of the criticism it has received in past decades. Next, we present the connection between Miller’s theory of consumption and his wide-ranging work in digital anthropology. Afterwards, we introduce the four original papers contained in this special issue and which consider, based on empirical research, the on-going relevance of Miller’s theory to current debates on materiality, social media and interdisciplinary exchange, including an interview with the author. Finally, in this introduction, we also present the section Registros de Pesquisa, where different Brazilian researchers discuss the opportunity of working closely with Miller.
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