OUR MATERIAL WORLD
Does Black Friday have ancient evolutionary roots?
This time of year becomes a shopping paradise – and a shopping hell. The arrival of novel products with amazingly good deals amid the gift-giving holidays leads many people to ecstatic levels of consumption. End-of-year shopping also leads to packed stores, crazy car parks and sometimes even riots.
Shopping is a modern phenomenon. But as an anthropologist who has studied humanity’s tangled relationship with stuff, I see the
