Social media has become a critical marketing mechanism for the fashion retail industry and while existing literature has researched the impact these media platforms have on the general consumer decision-making process, there is research deficiency on the specific influences on consumer motivations within the fashion retail sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore the levels to which social media platforms are influencing the consumer decision-making process for Generation X and Y consumers in the retail fashion environment. This study adopts an interpretive, exploratory approach, applying a qualitative design. The research involved 8 in-depth interviews and 2 focus groups in order to gain in-depth insights of two generational cohorts opinions, arguments, motivations and ideas. The findings revealed that consumers use a variety of internal and external motivations that influence their behaviours and perceptions of high-street fashion retailers, and these factors are aided and facilitated by the use of social media. However, the research also revealed that social media is not the only source that motivates their consumer decision-making process, and with the proliferation of active users on social media, these platforms are (and will continue to have) an ever more increasing impact on consumer decision-makings. Participants were found to actively use social media to gain inspiration and information regarding high-street fashion retailers, however their final intentions to purchase were not as highly influenced by the content produced as previously expected.

Although Morgan (1887) did not stress the point, his work in Ancient Society proposed that one of the concomitants of the evolution of human society was a modification in the way that marriage controls the expression of sexuality, especially (but not exclusively) female sexuality. According to Morgan's (1887:384) scheme, during the stage of "consanguine marriage" parents and children were the only categories in which marriage and sexual intercourse were forbidden. During the "punaluan" stage, brothers and sisters were excluded as possible mates. In the stage of the "pairing family," couples were joined in marriage but there was no requirement of fidelity. The transition to the "patriarchal family" meant that women must be monogamous and faithful, while men still married polygamously. Finally, "monogamian marriage" required "exclusive cohabitation" for both husband and wife. Engels (1975 [1884]), drawing upon Morgan's data, dealt briefly but more explicitly with the question of sexuality and gave special attention to the position of women. In his scenario, woman's sexual capacities were her residual ones, and after the development of malecontrolled private property, when her economic contributions lost their public worth, these sexual abilities came to the forefront: "woman was degraded and reduced to servitude; she became the slave of [man's] lust and a mere instrument for the production of children . . ." (Engels 1975:lZO-121).Most modern assessors of women's status dwell on the second of these outcomes rather than the first: not the sexual services, but the constraints imposed by reproductive biology and the timeconsuming nature of child rearing serve to make women secondary to men (e.g., Chodorow 1974; Ortner 1974; Rosaldo 1974). In the present paper, I wish to reconsider the topic of sexuality to which Engels and Morgan made brief reference. To some extent, this topic has been neglected as a patterned feature of social organization influencingComparison of three societies of aboriginal south Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, shows an increasing exchange value placed on the sexual services of women, as seen in marriage exchanges, fines for adultery and fornication, gifts between lovers, and prostitution. This increase is in direct relation to the development and use of general-purpose money. Implications for the comparative status of women and the evolution of society are noted. [Bougainville, status of women, economics of sex, social evolution, money]

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