Materializing the Nation

<p>Foster shows us how seemingly banal activities like making a phone call chewing betel nut watching a Coke commercial may give important insights into the ways in which the nation is constructed materialized or contested.--Orvar Löfgren author of On Holiday: A History of Vacationing<br /><br />Why in the current era of globalization does nationality remain an important dimension of personal and collective identities? In Materializing the Nation Robert J. Foster argues that the contested process of nation making in Papua New Guinea unfolds not only through organized politics but also through mundane engagements with commodities and mass media. He offers a thoughtful critique of recent approaches to nationalism and consumption and an ethnographic perspective on constructs of the nation found in official policy documents letters to the editor school textbooks song lyrics advertisements and other materials. This volume will appeal to readers interested in the links among nationalism consumption and media in Melanesia and elsewhere.</p>