Commodities are the product of “social relations between individuals at work.” They derive their
value from human labour, which is invested in their very form. However, once commodities hit the
market, they become objects to be bought, sold, and consumed and are divorced from the labour
power and social relations invested in their production. As a result, commodities become objects that
seem to have “mysterious” origins. We live in a capitalist society in which identity is constructed
through our acts of consumption. We incorporate commodities into the material and symbolic
practices of our daily lives, giving them significance and meaning. This is where the lens of the
cultural anthropologist comes in. Although we may know very little about their origins and the social
conditions of their production, our consumption of commodities links us to labourers around the
world who are engaged in production for the Canadian market.
Your job in this paper is to analyze the chain through which a commodity travels from its point of
production, through distribution, to consumption. Select one basic commodity (e.g., bananas,
diamonds, tea, tobacco) grown or mined outside of Canada and research the social, environmental,
and economic conditions of its production, distribution, and consumption right here in Toronto. You
will be paying particular attention to the symbolic and cultural “value” of this commodity—especially
for those who consume it (Is it a sign of status? Is it thought of as a source of comfort? Is it marketed
as a health food or “good” for your body? Is it a symbol of gender or race norms?). The commodity
you choose should be a raw ingredient—a foodstuff or a mined resource—and not a manufactured
item like a T-shirt or sneaker. A successful paper will answer these five questions fully:
1. Where does the commodity come from, and under what environmental conditions is it produced,
i.e., does it require cutting down forests, polluting rivers, or spraying poisonous pesticides on plants?
2. Who invested their labour in the production of the commodity, and under what labour conditions?
3. How does the commodity get from its point of origin to its point of sale in Canada?
4. What corporate entity controls the production, importation, and distribution of that commodity?
5. How does the commodity figure in the material and symbolic practices of everyday life in Canada?
Step 1: Go to a place of consumption and pick a fruit (bananas, mangos, kiwi fruits), vegetable (snow
peas, broccoli, tomatoes), flower (roses, tulips), drink (coffee, tea, wine), or mineral or metal (salt,
gold, diamonds, silver). You may pick a commodity not listed here, but please make sure to “okay”
your choice with your TA. Please select a commodity that comes from outside Canada. Then, pick
one company and one country that produces this commodity. For example, if you choose bananas,
you should select one brand name (e.g., Chiquita) and one country of origin (e.g., Ecuador). Or, if
you choose diamonds, you should choose one company (e.g., De Beers) and one country (e.g., South
Africa).
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Submit a 300-word-long proposal for the commodity you want to trace. Your proposal should clearly
state the name of the commodity you picked, the company that produces this commodity, and the
country where this commodity is being produced. Briefly explain why you have selected this
particular commodity, whether you know anything about the production and consumption of this
commodity, and what you expect to learn about that commodity at the end of your research. The due
date for the proposal is January 27.
Step 2: Research how the commodity got from its point of origin to the store. A commodity
chain is a connected path that a commodity travels from producer to consumer. To accomplish this
phase of the research, you will need to research this on the web. Search for basic information about
production and distribution systems and transportation networks. For example, is the coffee produced
on a plantation owned by the same company that imports it to Canada? Or, is the coffee grown by
small farmers and sold to a centralized buyer who then sells it to them? How does it get to Canada?
This information should only provide the basic frame of reference for your commodity chain and
should not make up a significant portion of your paper content.
Please note that only certain information is/will be made available to the public, and this does not
mean that the project has failed but that it is part of the ethnographic endeavour itself. This might call
for an expansion of sources: If the company refuses to share information, other sources might be
required, such as documentaries, social movements, or social media accounts such as the Slow Food
Movement (https://www.slowfood.com/) or other “resistance” movements that expose what corporate
companies might obscure from consumers.
Step 3: Research the effect on the environment caused by the extraction/harvesting of this
commodity. In other words, find out how the production of the commodity affects the environment
and the labourers themselves, where it is grown, and why. Or, if it is a mineral or metal, how is it
extracted from the earth? What are the environmental impacts of production for the region in question,
and what are the environmental impacts for the producers—i.e., is it grown in a very hot climate such
that workers suffer from heat exhaustion or skin cancer, or do workers suffer from exposure to
harmful chemicals or asbestos or coal dust? What kinds of processing does the commodity undergo
before it is exported to Canada?
Step 4: Find out who owns the means of production (e.g., land and machinery), who has invested
their wage labour in the production of that commodity, and how the crop/product transforms
into a commodity. How does it change from a once-living entity to a dead product, from a plant to an
edible food item, or from a living animal to meat? What kind of demographic (urban, rural, class,
gender) does the labour force represent? What sort of pay do they receive? How is work organized on
the plantation, mine, processing/packaging plant, and distribution center? What kinds of working
conditions do the labourers experience? Are there any health hazards to the work?
Also, try to access information about the view of the labourers about the product of their labour. How
do they value the product as they deal with it — in other words, besides affecting them potentially
negatively, how do labourers (and local populations if this is an export crop/product) value this
product or crop? Do they hate it? Do they regard it as a mere means for financial profit? Can they
afford to purchase these products?
Step 5: Think about how the commodity figures in the material and symbolic practices of our
daily lives as Canadian consumers. When and why do we buy and use this commodity? What
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cultural significance does it have in our lives? For instance, do we incorporate it into daily rituals, or
is it reserved for special occasions? Is it a luxury item or an inexpensive essential good? Does
everyone use this commodity, or just a small sector of the population? If it is the object of a
significant marketing campaign, what is being marketed that a consumer “wants” above and beyond
the thing itself? (Status? Gender identity? Health? Wealth? Success? Longevity) (Think of the slogans
“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” “Diamonds are forever.”)
Step 6: Write a 5-page double-spaced paper (not including the bibliography), expressed in your
own words, that outlines the commodity chain and, most importantly, analyzes the social,
environmental, economic, and cultural conditions of the commodity’s production, distribution, and
consumption. This research paper should include an introduction with a clear thesis statement, body
paragraphs, a conclusion, and a bibliography. A good thesis statement will convey your main
argument and hold the various lines of your analysis together. A successful paper should provide an
analysis of the conditions of production and consumption, not simply give a list of facts to fulfill the
above requirements.
In doing your research, you should draw on each of these three sources:
• information directly from the store or company,
• at least three scholarly articles and books,
• and the internet.
If you pick Chiquita bananas or De Beers diamonds, you may look at their websites while keeping in
mind that commercial websites function as advertisements. Be very careful when using information
from the web. You cannot always take this information at face value. Thus, it is essential to use other
academic sources you find at the UofT libraries or an academic journal source such as JSTOR to
support your analysis, which should be analytically critical and factual. You also must provide a
complete bibliography, including the website addresses.
Optional: You can include an interactive map or graph to complement your essay. You could add
images and trace transformations of crops/products/materials into commodities and locate them in the
various regions of the globe and their flow into Canada. Here, you can draw a map, trace a commodity
chain and show how different parts of the world are connected via commodities.
Useful Resources to Consult:
1. The University of Chicago Press Series “A Global History” with over 85 books on foods.
(https://press.uchicago.edu/press/search.html?clause=A+global+history)
2. For mapping, Prezi and Canva are excellent resources:
(https://prezi.com/students/?click_source=logged_element&page_location=product_card&element_te
xt=prezi_for_students&occupation_selector=true and https://www.canva.com/create/maps/)
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Essay Guidelines:
This paper should be five pages, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with one-inch margins on all sides.
Include a title, your name, your TA, and the date at the top of the first page and insert page numbers
on each page. Begin your bibliography on page six or after. It should not be included in the five-page
limit. Please make sure to carefully formulate your analysis, check your grammar and sentence
structure, and proofread your paper for spelling and punctuation errors.
I encourage you to use the UofT’s Undergraduate Writing Center (https://writing.utoronto.ca/) for
help with your assignment. You may also visit your TAs during office hours for extra guidance. This
paper will be worth 20% of your final course grade.
Proper citation and bibliography (including the website addresses) are required! Do not include
website URLs within the text. Use the “(Name of the Author, Year of Publication: Page number)”
format for within-the-main text citation. Use parenthetical citations and bibliographic standards from
The Chicago Manual of Style or the MLS Manual of Style.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html. Or use the American Ethnologist style for End
Notes and/or the Bibliography section. Here are examples of this style:
Books: LUTZ, Catherine A. and Jane L. Collins. 1993. Reading National Geographic. Chicago and
London: The University of Chicago Press.
Chapters in Edited Volumes: Jessop, Bob. 1999. Narrating the Future of the National Economy and the
National State: Remarks on Remapping Regulation and Reinventing Governance. In State/Culture:
State Formation after the Cultural Turn. George Steinmetz, ed. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. pp. 378-
406.
Journal Articles: Makdisi, Saree. 1997. Laying Claim to Beirut: Urban Narrative and Spatial Identity in
the Age of Solidere. Critical Inquiry 23(3): 660-705.
Late Submission: Assignments received later than the due date will be penalized by 2% per day. No
assignments will be accepted more than seven calendar days late.