Research in the 1980s revealed some unusual ethnographic/anthropological facts, which made researchers consider several questions. E.g. why do Peruvian Indians carry rocks painted to look like transistor radios? Why do some Chinese wear sunglasses with the brand tags still attached? Why have cheap quartz watches become part of the traditional ceremonial wedding outfit in Niger?
Why do natives of Papua New Guinea add ties to their collarless necks and substitute brand-name pens for traditional nose bones? Why do Ethiopian tribesmen pay to watch the film “Pluto Tries to Become a Circus Dog” and why
37 There is an apparent contradiction between the findings Inglehart, interested mainly in social and intercultural issues and the findings of research examining the individuals of a certain culture (Belk, Richins), as the former suggests decreasing the latter ones suggest increasing materialism in industrial countries. The contradiction can be resolved theoretically by referring to the distorting effect of the media and advertising on personal values (cf. Richins 1999, pp. 376–7) as discussed in the main text. Jackson and Marks (1999) supplied empirical evidence by analyzing consumption data from Great Britain between 1954 and 1994, that people spend increasingly more money on their immaterial needs but these still remain unfulfilled. This could answer criticism of Maslow’s theory (e.g. Belk 1988, p. 116) saying that it mistakenly predicts the decrease in material values of developed Western countries based on the fulfillment of physiological needs.
does the native band play ‘The Sound of Music’ when a Swazi princess marries a Zulu king?38
The worldwide spread of Western goods has several detrimental effects on traditional cultures. There is often a tendency that demands for cheaper and similar (or higher) quality local products decreases when prominent Western goods appear on the market. In Brazil, with the appearance of Western luxuries and aggressive marketing, household indebtedness increased and people reduced their consumption of necessities, particularly food.39 Furthermore, the bad health consequences of certain goods (like cigarettes or medicines) are not so well-known in developing countries.40 Development priorities also change, e.g. building an expensive network of roads for the benefit of a narrow elite subgroup owning automobiles instead of investing in basic welfare. The interpersonal safety net of being able to rely on others is deteriorating and is being replaced by a reliance on things and money (Belk 1988, pp. 117–9). Mo-ney increasingly substitutes for people and some governments are urged by the West to offer consumer goods to consumers willing to be sterilized (Freedman 1976, quoted by Belk 1988, p. 120).41
The excessive spread of consumer society does not seem to be the answer to environmental problems. Even if we disregard these problems and concentrate on society, there are still several other questions about the development of the Third World to answer. Surveys described in the subchapter about the relationship between materialism and happiness revealed that the correlation between these two phenomena is not positive: materialistic attitudes are usually accompanied by higher level of dissatisfaction. The fact that these results are obtained from wealthy, developed countries should not be considered as reassuring since the gap between material dreams and reality in a poor country is even wider, resulting in
38 The examples are quoted from Arnould and Wilk (1984), Curry (1981), Wallendorf and Arnould (1988) and Sherry (1987) by Belk (1988, p. 117).
39 Belk (1988) mentions several examples which prove that hedonic consumption of Western products is even characteristic of the poorest social groups of Third World countries. They often choose Western goods at the expense of satisfying basic needs.
40 Silverman (1976) examined how 40 prescription drugs sold by 23 transnational companies were described to doctors. It turned out that in Latin American countries the same drugs were recommended for far more diseases than in the United States, while the contraindications, warnings and potential adverse reactions were not given in as much detail as in the US (quoted by Jenkins 1988, p. 1366).
41 According to popular slogan economic growth is the best contraceptive. However, some questions remain unasked, says Herman Daly, e.g. is it necessary for per capita consumption to rise to the Swedish level in a developing country for fertility to fall to the Swedish level, and if so what happens to the ecosystem of this country as a result of that level of total consumption? (Daly 1999, pp. 20–1).
bigger dissatisfaction (Belk 1988, p. 121). In this case just the spread of consumer society in the Third World poses a problem apart from difficulties described above. Though it does not answer the reason of spread, it is still remarkable to note that the rapid expansion of major advertising agencies happened in the decade between 1961 and 1971. During this time they established almost five times as many foreign subsidiaries as in the preceding 45 years (UNCTC 1979) and in the Third World more than two-thirds of all advertising agency revenue was controlled by foreign advertising agencies (Chudnovsky 1979, quoted by Jenkins 1988, p. 1366). It seems, it is not only their branded products that Wes-tern countries export to the Third World but also their time-honored advertising techniques to create desire for these products.
A series of surveys for comparing the materialism of different cultures based on the international version of Belk’s materialism scale (see p. 9) yielded important findings. The respondents were business and MBA students from 13 countries (1729 subjects altogether) (Ger–Belk 1996, pp. 59–60).42
The reliability of the materialism scale (based on the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient) was higher in Western countries, which made the researchers conclude that the materialism inherent in consumer culture arose in the West and has diffused from the West to other parts of the world. The absolute value of materialism, however, was not so obvious. The Romanian, US, New Zealander and Ukrainian samples proved to be the most materialist, the German, Turkish, Israeli and Thai subjects were moderately materialistic, while the Indian and non-Germanic Western European students scored low in materialism (Ger–Belk 1996, p. 70).43 The authors suggest that the relatively low materialism of India and non-Germanic Western Europe is explained by the stability of these societies, while the high materialism of subjects in post-communist countries may be due to a sudden release from former systematic consumer deprivation. The relatively high level of materialism in Germany and Turkey may also be the result of drastic social changes. “Social change and accompanying mobility and confusion in norms coupled with the spread of Wes-tern influence and globalization seem to impel materialism”, the authors conclude (Ger–Belk 1996, p. 74).
42 Though the sample makes it possible to compare the findings, it does not indicate precisely the materialism of the whole nations involved.
43 The statement that, for example, the materialism of Norwegian students is low according to the sample does make sense only in comparison with the other students of the other countries in the sample. The level of materialism that can be regarded as normal in a certain country remains unanswered. From this aspect it is possible that the Norwegian level, which was lower than the American or the Romanian one, in itself is still too high from a social point of view.
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