Consumption, Ethnicity and Tensions in Non-Western Contexts: an Exploration of the Kabyle Marriages in Algeria

Non-western consumer societies are still dramatically less researched than other contexts. We believe that there lie many complex consumption phenomena. In this paper, we propose to expose primary findings of an ethnographic research in Algeria, especially within the Kabyle ethnic minority group. Through an analysis of 16 marriages, we interpret tensions that emerged from the field as regard very recent exogamic marriages with Arabs. Those tensions inform consumers anxiety about a starting acculturation process in the context of a rising consumer culture. Keywords: non-western culture, ethnicity; tensions; marriages

Citation:

Nacima Ourahmoune and nil Özcaglar-Toulouse (2011) ,"Consumption, Ethnicity and Tensions in Non-Western Contexts: an Exploration of the Kabyle Marriages in Algeria", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 615-617.