Title: | Toward a Broadened Theory of Preference Formation and the Diffusion of Innovations: Cases from Zinder Province, Niger Republic; |
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Authors and Corporations: | |
In: | Journal of Consumer Research, 16, 1989, 2, p. 239-267 |
published: |
Journal of Consumer Research
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Media Type: | Article, E-Article |
Physical Description: | 239-267 |
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ISSN: |
0093-5301
1537-5277 |
published in: | Journal of Consumer Research |
Language: | English |
Collection: | sid-55-col-jstoras4 sid-55-col-jstorbusiness1archive sid-55-col-jstorbusiness JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV Archive JSTOR Business I Archive JSTOR Business & Economics |
<p>The standard model for the diffusion of innovations in consumer behavior does not adequately account for the incorporation of novel items of non-local origin into the material culture inventory of Hausa-speaking peasants in Niger. A synthetic, culturally relative model composed of elements drawn from the standard diffusion paradigm, from world-systems theory, and from economic and symbolic anthropology provides a more satisfactory account of these processes. Analysis shows that novel goods provide a medium through which alternative paradigms of consumer behavior and reality contend. Among the Hausa, a premarket model, a Western market-mediated model, and an islamic ethnonationalist model compete for consumer affiliation.</p> |