Reference no: EM133473130
Question 1: How did global exchange create new patterns of consumption and social interaction?
Question 2: In what ways did those new patterns shape understandings and displays of social status in the Early Modern period?
Working with Evidence
Consumption and Culture in the Early Modern World
As global commerce expanded in the early modern era, growing numbers of people around the world gained increased access to goods from far away, and some of these products - sugar, pepper, tobacco, tea, and cotton textiles, for example - gradually dropped in price, becoming more widely available. Widespread consumption of these formerly exclusive goods brought cultural change. Increased access to products threatened their use as signifiers of elite status, and profits generated by their trade created commercial classes of traders and merchants that were often more wealthy than traditional elites. The consumption of some products, including tea, coffee, chocolate, and tobacco, also created new arenas for social interaction. The sources that follow illustrate the relationship between consumption and culture during the several centuries after 1500, using clothing, tea, porcelain, and coffee as examples.
Clothing and Status in the Americas
Clothing has long been an important means of displaying status in public settings, and the growing availability of imported fabrics and garments increased the fashion and dress options of people from many different social backgrounds. Source 14.1 shows a woman of Native American ancestry (India) and a man of African/Indian descent (Chino combujo) as well as their child, who is categorized as a loba, or "wolf." The image comes from a series of paintings created in eighteenth-century Mexico by the well-known Zapotec artist Miguel Cabrera to depict some eighteen or more multiracial couples and their children, each with a distinct designation. The woman in this image is wearing a huipil, a traditional Maya tunic or blouse, while the man is dressed in a European-style waistcoat, vest, and lace shirt, while holding a black tricorne hat, widely popular in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While this system slotted people into a hierarchical social order defined by race and heritage, it did allow for some social mobility. If individuals managed to acquire some education, land, or money, they might gain in social prestige and even pass as members of a more highly favored category. Adopting the dress and lifestyle of higher-ranking groups could facilitate this process.