Material Culture in Daniel Miller´s The Comfort of Things

In Epilogue, which is the closing chapter of the book, The Comfort of Things, Daniel Miller deals with the purpose of material culture. The chapter starts with an important question, â€Å"If this is a street in contemporary London and these are its people, what, then, is modern life, and what is the nature of that humanity which lives in our times?† (Miller; 282). He turns to social sciences to find the answer for this question, and sets out from Durkheim. According to Durkheim it is humanity which created religion and cosmology, and people need Gods only to satisfy religious rituals and to help obey the law, which is a base of living in society. If Miller had put the history of philosophy, social science and religion on one side and turned to people to ask, what is important in their life; or why do they think their life is full or empty, one of the possible answers are the relationships. But what he mainly studies here, are the relationships with material objects, which assures peoples material presence. He draws two conclusions from his book: â€Å"†¦the centrality of relationships to modern life, and the centrality of material culture to relationships.† In connection with this he refers to Bourdieu and to his study between Berbers. Bourdieu said that people dont need school or education to know what does it mean being a Berber, and how they have to behave. It is the history and the material official according to what people change their behavior. Pierre Bourdieu says thatShow MoreRelatedA Leadership Development Of The Church Essay2277 Words   |  10 Pagesthroughout. Leadership development apart from God is nothing more than a ladder of accomplishment within the ranks of a local body of believers. Daniel Im states, Christian leadership is not taking secular leadership and baptizing it into the church. 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