Laborer
1 2017-12-14T14:01:55-08:00 Yaicha Ocampo 9fd8fc7c86775245a36444471a555e92ba78ded0 26020 1 plain 2017-12-14T14:01:55-08:00 titre2 20161026 145808 Cyril Abad Photographer ville FR pays nom_serie_CABAD Cyril Abad Cyril Abad / CAPA Pictures Photographer legende 20161026 145808 CAPA Pictures titre 1 Yaicha Ocampo 9fd8fc7c86775245a36444471a555e92ba78ded0This page is referenced by:
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Starbucks - the new Fetish
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Karl Marx defines fetish as the worship of inanimate objects. This obsession stems from the social relationship between the laborer and the products of that labor.
William Pietz wrote The Problem of the Fetish to highlight dilemmas of the commodity within Anthropology and Aesthetics. He identified the first essential characteristic of the fetish commodity as being the "object's irreducible materiality,” or the quality of properties and materials that compose the product. The laborer bases the product's “mystical value” on its composition followed by its social implications. The social value is completely subjective to the laborer - during this evaluation, he imprints a part of himself into the product.
The commodity is “therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men’s labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour” (Marx).
Society trusts the laborer’s judgement, and a uniform social status is then created. This value process “converts every product into a social hieroglyphic” (Marx).
