Counterfeit Culture

‘Wide-ranging, witty and fresh ... a stimulating read. Authentic fun’ Tim Harford, Financial Times Best Summer Books 2022 ‘Brilliantly witty, profoundly illuminating, Alice Sherwood is a master storyteller’ Simon Schama ‘Thought-provoking and beautifully written’ Adrian Wooldridge, Washington Post

When first published in 1971, Amazonia was a pioneering contribution to the emerging field of cultural ecology. Betty Meggers argued that the Amazon's luxurious vegetation concealed significant limitations for human exploitation, placing a ceiling on pre-Columbian population density and social complexity. Amazonia in this revised new edition includes recent biological and climatic data. Ethnographic and archaeological evidence reemphasize the complexity of the ecosystem and broaden our understanding of past and present sophisticated adaptations among indigenous groups.

Faked in China is a critical account of the cultural challenge faced by China following its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. It traces the interactions between nation branding and counterfeit culture, two manifestations of the globalizing Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime that give rise to competing visions for the nation. Nation branding is a state-sanctioned policy, captured by the slogan "From Made in China to Created in China," which aims to transform China from a manufacturer of foreign goods into a nation that creates its own IPR-eligible brands. Counterfeit culture is the transnational making, selling, and buying of unauthorized products. This cultural dilemma of the postsocialist state demonstrates the unequal relations of power that persist in contemporary globalization.

Explores the possibility of writing epic in an age of alternative facts.

Jen Oshman Helps Women Reject Idols and Discover God's Good Purpose for Their Lives In today's culture, women and girls are influenced by idols that promise purpose and meaning for their lives—outward beauty and ability, sex, abortion, and gender fluidity. Christian women aren't exempt from these temptations either, and can even elevate good things like marriage and motherhood to the status of idolatry. Women may sense that these idols are hollow and leave them feeling unsettled, but where should they turn instead? In Cultural Counterfeits, Jen Oshman encourages women to reject the empty, destructive promises these idols offer and embrace something much more satisfying. She casts a vision for women to experience real hope and peace in Jesus, calling them to recognize their unshakable and eternal identities in him. This timely and compelling resource will help women find freedom and joy as they explore God's good design and purpose for their lives. Culturally Relevant: Addresses current topics such as the #MeToo movement, LGBTQIA+, social media, and feminism Explains "How We Got Here": Gives a brief history of the sexual revolution up to today Written by Jen Oshman: Author of Enough about Me: Find Lasting Joy in the Age of Self For Group or Individual Study: Includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter

"The Anthropology of Stuff" is part of a new Series dedicated to innovative, unconventional ways to connect undergraduate students and their lived concerns about our social world to the power of social science ideas and evidence. Our goal with the project is to help spark social science imaginations and in doing so, new avenues for meaningful thought and action. Each "Stuff" title is a short (100 page) "mini text" illuminating for students the network of people and activities that create their material world. Yi-Chieh Lin reveals how the entrepreneurial energy of emerging markets, such as China, includes the opportunity to profit from fake stuff, that is counterfeit goods that rely on our fascination with brand names. Students will discover how the names and logos embroidered and printed on their own clothes carry their own price tag above and beyond the use value of the products themselves. The book provides a wonderful introduction for students to global markets and their role in determining how they function.

This book explores the consumption of counterfeit fashion goods. Despite the importance of the consumer in counterfeiting policy, there has been a lack of attention within criminology about the demand for counterfeit goods. A tendency to explain counterfeit consumption through deviance or ‘othering’ reinforces stereotypical assumptions about consumers and overplays the importance of superficial factors in consumption. This book develops an understanding of why counterfeit markets exist through exploring consumer behavior in consuming counterfeit fashion, and examining this in relation to attitudes on fashion, crime, harm and victimization. The book argues that there is a need to consider demand for illicit goods within a broader understanding of the nature of fashion and the fashion industry. This book will appeal to those with an interest in illicit markets, consumer behavior, fashion, criminology, and the harms associated with fashion and consumer industries more generally.

Fakery, authenticity, and identity in American literature and culture at the turn of the 20th century Focusing on texts written between 1880 and 1930, Mary McAleer Balkun explores the concept of the “counterfeit,” both in terms of material goods and invented identities, and the ways that the acquisition of objects came to define individuals in American culture and literature. Counterfeiting is, in one sense, about the creation of something that appears authentic—an invented self, a museum display, a forged work of art. But the counterfeit can also be a means by which the authentic is measured, thereby creating our conception of the true or real. When counterfeiting is applied to individual identities, it fosters fluidity in social boundaries and the games of social climbing and passing that have come to be representative of American culture: the Horatio Alger story, the con man or huckster, the social climber, the ethnically ambiguous. Balkun provides new readings of traditional texts such as The Great Gatsby, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and The House of Mirth, as well as readings of less-studied texts, such as Walt Whitman’s Specimen Days and Nella Larsen’s Passing. In each of these texts, Balkun locates the presence of manufactured identities and counterfeit figures, demonstrating that where authenticity and consumerism intersect, the self becomes but another commodity to be promoted, sold, and eventually consumed.