This paper addresses the concept of consumer tribes, and how various resource exchanges and plundering is carried out within this context. The concept of plundering has been introduced in research, yet only from a theoretical point of view. Hence this study provides a first attempt at taking the concept of plundering from a theoretical representation to an embodied explanation. This was examined through an ethnographic method consisting of 70 hours participating observations, 237 observations online and seven interviews. The chosen context of this study was a CrossFit box. Three major findings have been revealed. First, plundering of resources only occur outside the tribe with external actors, while an in-group mentality prevail in exchanges occurring inside the tribe. The second finding reveals that plundering can be carried out despite present motives or inducements as love or passion towards specific products or brands. The third finding holds that the consumer tribe exhibit consumers engagement in an interplay of logics and modes of exchanges to enable plundering, heighten their endowment and benefit the community. Finally, marketing managers are advised to see plundering as a playful challenge that nonetheless could provide opportunities since consumers share their prey with other devoted and passionate members and mutual plundering exist within this context.

La prédation – pillages, prises de captifs et prélèvements tributaires – est un aspect important de la pratique guerrière dans les sociétés du haut Moyen Âge. Elle met en circulation de grandes quantités de richesses qui viennent alimenter les trésors des rois et des potentes. Cette étude vise à en dégager le rôle dans le fonctionnement et la reproduction des pouvoirs, dans le monde franc du VIe au Xe siècle.Les enjeux sont nombreux. L'appropriation de biens par la guerre est déterminante dans la capacité des grands à mobiliser des combattants, qui bénéficient d'une part de ces richesses. En outre, elle leur permet d'accumuler des biens de prestige essentiels dans la praxis aristocratique : objets précieux, armes, chevaux… Ces biens alimentent les échanges matériels entre les élites. Ils peuvent être distribués aux fidèles ou donnés à d'autres princes. La prédation est également facteur de gloire. Le butin fait parfois l'objet de pratiques ostentatoires illustrant la victoire des chefs de guerre.Si elle est facteur de cohésion, la prédation est aussi au centre de concurrences. La royauté franque impose une domination tributaire aux gentes voisines, ce qui apparaît aussi bien comme un moyen de stabiliser l'espace frontalier que d'institutionnaliser à son profit exclusif l'appropriation prédatrice. Les grands en charge des espaces frontaliers tendent au contraire à multiplier les confrontations guerrières afin d'en retirer les bénéfices. Parallèlement, l'expansion franque se traduit par une forte compétition entre les acteurs pour le contrôle des ressources foncières. Cette étude montre ainsi comment la question de la prédation éclaire sous un angle nouveau le rapport entre élites et richesse dans le monde franc. / Predation – looting, taking of captives, pressing of tributes – is an important aspect of early medieval warrior activity. Large amounts of wealth circulate and supply kings' and potentes' treasures. This study aims at exposing the role of related practices in the context of the establishment and functioning of power in sixth to tenth century Frankish society.There is a lot at stake. Appropriation of material goods by war allows the magnates to mobilize warriors, who often receive a share of wealth. What is more, these practices enable the accumulation of prestige goods, that are essential in aristocratic praxis : alongside precious objects, they include weapons, horses… These goods are central to material exchanges within the elite. They can be distributed to the fideles or given to other princes. Predation also represents glory. War leaders willingly exhibit booty to illustrate a recent victory.Being a means to cohesion, predatory practices also are at the center of competition. Frankish kings impose tributary domination to neighboring gentes, which appears at the same time as a means to stabilizing the border area, and as a way to institutionalize to its own account predatory profits. Instead, magnates in charge of border areas tend to seek warlike confrontations in order to reap the benefits. At the same time, the Frankish expansion results in a strong competition between magnates to control land resources. This study thus exposes to what extense these practices shed new light on the link between the elite and wealth in the Frankish world.

This study aims to examine how Rome understood 'the Other' in the context of Roman plundering of sacred sites. It analyses specifically the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, and how it was affected by the destruction of Corinth in 146 BCE, and the second Jewish temple at Jerusalem, and how the Romans went about destroying it in 70 CE. This study combines archaeological and written sources with iconography, to get as full an image as possible of Roman pillaging. For Isthmia the sources are mainly archaeological, from the excavations made by the University of Chicago. For Jerusalem the source is the ancient text Bellum Judaicum, by Flavius Josephus. The theory is that of 'the Other', as presented by Erich Gruen in his work Rethinking the other in antiquity, which is applied to the many questions in the discussion. The result of this study shows that Romans frequently sacked sacred sites of other peoples and used the artworks from them to beautify their own cities. They used the history and tradition of the Other for their own gain, to create a certain image of themselves. Further, this study finds that Rom considered itself the main power in the Mediterranean during these periods of antiquity.