Homo consumens i Homo mediatus – kritički osvrt
Homo Consumens and Homo Mediatus – Critical review

Author(s): Lidija Vujačić
Subject(s): Anthropology, Social Sciences
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: consumerism; exchange; media; new culture of needs; identity
Summary/Abstract: Every period in human history is marked by some kind of exchange, that is, by a socioeconomic model of behavior in which standardized values circulate according to certain rules, i.e. material and symbolic contents are produced and “consumed”. In anthropological theories, therefore, exchange (information, goods, services, representations, emotions, etc.) is problematized as a complex phenomenon that explains how social relations are regulated, social structure is formed, which moral and aesthetic standards dominate, what is the social stratification. etc. In the paper, in the broadest context of the concept of exchange, current (hyper) 224 consumerism is problematized as an extremely important contemporary social phenomenon whose causes and consequences, from a socio-anthropological perspective, go beyond the economic plane, so the analysis is redirected from Homo economicus to Homo consumens. For the basic reason that consumption is part of the modern culture of needs and is woven into everyday patterns of behavior, as well as in the constant interaction with mass media and digital technology. The current accumulation of subject abundance and the continuous internalization of consumer values make contemporary identity, similar to other constructive categories, increasingly dependent on consumption, at the same time more fluid, i.e. left to the market, which dictates the standards in everything, even in the desirable “identification”.

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