"Why do we acquire the things we do? Behind this apparently ingenuous question are several answers, some straightforward and others more interesting. To feed ourselves, might be the first response, for it is obvious that we expend much energy in the quest for food. Clothing and shelter would also seem to constitute our basic needs. Yet we can easily see that even in the Garden of Eden, people wanted more than they needed. This simple impulse has created the ever mounting abundance we call progress and nearly all of the subsequent trouble on our planet." "Four main interwoven themes run through this exploration of material culture in Latin America over the past five centuries: supply and demand; the relationship between consumption and identity; the weight of ritual, both ancient and modern, in what we acquire; and the importance of colonial and postcolonial power in the practice of consumption."--BOOK JACKET.