A rapidly accelerating consumer culture increasingly defined Mexican urban society during the rule of Porfirio Díaz, 1876-1911. The significance of this global process at a national level can best be understood within the context of the economic and cultural modernization drive of the Porfirian regime. It manifested itself in a growing domestic consumer market and manufacturing base, an evolution of retailing and advertising forms, and the social and cultural implications of these developments. This consumer culture helped to define the visual and social reality of Mexico City and other cities, influencing architecture, street life, and other public as well as private spaces of urban Porfirians. Equally importantly, its presence permeated public discourse, with consumer goods, institutions, and values providing the vocabulary and metaphors many used to help explain and understand the rapid changes that characterized their lives. In other words, goods and the language of goods gave shape and form to the abstract condition of modernity in which Porfirian Mexicans lived.
Using both written and visual sources, this dissertation outlines the form, institutions, and several of the major actors creating this consumer culture. This includes tracking the rise and evolution of the cigarette industry, advertising, department stores, and modernizing crime during the Porfiriato.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-04202006-160810 |
| Date | 20 April 2006 |
| Creators | Bunker, Steven Blair |
| Contributors | William H Beezley |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf, application/msword |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-04202006-160810/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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