El trayecto de la mercancía: del objeto fetiche al Yo marca

Abstract

This article is based on the hypothesis that in modern society the «mystery» of the goods has adopted new forms that singularize it with respect to the traditional theories linked to the world as factory. If in archaic societies fetishes served to exorcise fear in the face of a mysterious and unknown exterior, and in industrial societies commercial objects acquired the quality of fetishes having a power that exceeded their mere physical condition, in the world as a supermarket, to be a consumer probably leads to becoming a consumer of the self transmuting the I into the maximum object. In the face of an overabundance of external stimuli, the individual conceives consumption as an emotion, as a form of approaching its unexplored layers, its «real I» in Romantic terminology. The object is the way to enrich life with its different experiences. The consumer seeks for new and unceasing stimuli in a constant movement that recalls a tourist visiting new destinations.