Consuming the American West: Animating Cultural Meaning and Memory at a Stock Show and Rodeo

Abstract

This ethnographic research examines consumers' cultural production at a cattle trade show and rodeo. Consumers recreate western cultural meanings and memories related to competition, naturalism, freedom/independence, and family tradition in their interactions with ranchers, booth exhibitors, animals, and artifacts of western history. Consumers' cultural production processes are documented at four levels: consumer behavior, situational positioning, subcultural interactions, and market interactions. Implications elaborate the significance of consumers' active, yet constrained production processes; the role of cultural meanings as market mediators; and issues in consuming another culture. Copyright 2001 by the University of Chicago.