Various commentaries on consumption have been around for millennia, during which time it has waxed and waned, but never disappeared. It appears in texts from ancient Athens, the Roman philosophers, the Christian church, the Romantic poets, and today from a myriad of marketing scholars (Rudmin & Kilbourne, 1996). Within this domain, the role of consumption as expressive behaviour has also been devel. oping. Among the factors studied have been measurement (Richins, 2004), the individual consequences of consumption (Rindfleisch et al., 1997), identity formation (Holt, 1997; Micken & Roberts, 1999), envi. ronmental consequences (Kilbourne et al., 2002; Prothero et al., 2011), and global consequences (Kilbourne, 2004). This breadth of topics suggests that the field has transcended the traditional micro-marketing approach to consumption. However, most research today still examines consumption as it is currently practiced and does not normally extend to the genesis of such practices.