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Journal of Material Culture
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Enlivened Objects

The Social Life, Death and Rebirth of Radio as Commodity in Afghanistan

Andrew Skuse

University of Adelaide, Australia, andrew.skuse{at}adelaide.edu.au

This article examines the social maintenance of commodity exchange and use values with specific regard to radio in Afghanistan. It addresses the socio-symbolic significance of the technology, as reflected in the domestic positioning and care afforded to radio sets. Radio brands, durability, disrepair and repair are also discussed in the context of poverty, the maximization of future exchange values and the long-term extraction of maximal use values. The article addresses notions of mundane everyday object enlivenment and concludes by suggesting that the meaning invested in certain objects, in this instance radio, is characterized by a process of ongoing economic and semantic investment that serves to maintain the object as a source of information, marker of social status, modernity and symbol of global connection.

Key Words: Afghanistan • consumption • enlivenment • radio • repair

Journal of Material Culture, Vol. 10, No. 2, 123-137 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/1359183505053071
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