Mary Douglas (1921-2007) was one of the leading anthropologists of her generation. She studied anthropology at Oxford University before undertaking fieldwork with the Lele people in the Congo. She completed her doctorate in 1952 and accepted an appointment at University College London, where she was instrumental in establishing the department, remaining for twenty-five years. Her first book, Purity and Danger (1966), studied the concepts of pollution and taboo and is regarded as a classic of social anthropology. From the mid-1970s to 1980s she held a variety of appointments in the United States, in New York and Northwestern University, Illinois. She was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1989 and made a distinguished fellow of University College London in 1994. In 1992 she was appointed CBE, and later DBE in 2007.Baron Isherwood is an English economist and specialist on consumer behaviour, currently with the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom.

"A pioneering work of the anthropology of consumption" - The Guardian "The most widely read British social anthropologist of her generation" - The Guardian "A master at discerning order in unexpected forms and surprising places" - The New York Times

• Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Richard Wilk Introduction Part 1: Goods as an Information System 1. Why People Want Goods 2. Why They Save 3. The Uses of Goods 4. Exclusion, Intrusion 5. The Technology of Consumption 6. Consumption Periodicities Part 2: Implications for social policy 7. Separate Economic Spheres in Ethnography 8. International Comparisons 9. Consumption Classes 10. Control of Value Index

Mary Douglas (1921-2007) was one of the leading anthropologists of her generation. She studied anthropology at Oxford University before undertaking fieldwork with the Lele people in the Congo. She completed her doctorate in 1952 and accepted an appointment at University College London, where she was instrumental in establishing the department, remaining for twenty-five years. Her first book, Purity and Danger (1966), studied the concepts of pollution and taboo and is regarded as a classic of social anthropology. From the mid-1970s to 1980s she held a variety of appointments in the United States, in New York and Northwestern University, Illinois. She was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1989 and made a distinguished fellow of University College London in 1994. In 1992 she was appointed CBE, and later DBE in 2007.Baron Isherwood is an English economist and specialist on consumer behaviour, currently with the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom.

"A pioneering work of the anthropology of consumption" - The Guardian "The most widely read British social anthropologist of her generation" - The Guardian "A master at discerning order in unexpected forms and surprising places" - The New York Times

• Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Richard Wilk Introduction Part 1: Goods as an Information System 1. Why People Want Goods 2. Why They Save 3. The Uses of Goods 4. Exclusion, Intrusion 5. The Technology of Consumption 6. Consumption Periodicities Part 2: Implications for social policy 7. Separate Economic Spheres in Ethnography 8. International Comparisons 9. Consumption Classes 10. Control of Value Index

Mary Douglas (1921-2007) was one of the leading anthropologists of her generation. She studied anthropology at Oxford University before undertaking fieldwork with the Lele people in the Congo. She completed her doctorate in 1952 and accepted an appointment at University College London, where she was instrumental in establishing the department, remaining for twenty-five years. Her first book, Purity and Danger (1966), studied the concepts of pollution and taboo and is regarded as a classic of social anthropology. From the mid-1970s to 1980s she held a variety of appointments in the United States, in New York and Northwestern University, Illinois. She was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1989 and made a distinguished fellow of University College London in 1994. In 1992 she was appointed CBE, and later DBE in 2007.Baron Isherwood is an English economist and specialist on consumer behaviour, currently with the Department of Health and Social Security in the United Kingdom.

"A pioneering work of the anthropology of consumption" - The Guardian "The most widely read British social anthropologist of her generation" - The Guardian "A master at discerning order in unexpected forms and surprising places" - The New York Times

• Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Richard Wilk Introduction Part 1: Goods as an Information System 1. Why People Want Goods 2. Why They Save 3. The Uses of Goods 4. Exclusion, Intrusion 5. The Technology of Consumption 6. Consumption Periodicities Part 2: Implications for social policy 7. Separate Economic Spheres in Ethnography 8. International Comparisons 9. Consumption Classes 10. Control of Value Index