This essay, while endorsing Cathi McMullen's core thesis--that Alpaca collecting represents a new kind of rapturous, high-involvement consumption (wherein the consumer/producer distinction is challenged)--seeks to further evolve the explanatory account of this microculture. The drive behind Alpaca collecting may be located in specific trends embedded in both the modern and postmodern condition, such as the rejection of industrialized agriculture. Understanding of this remarkable phenomenon in terms of a striving for social connection is possible; the search for novelty; and the search for a nuanced, idiosyncratic expression of status within an expanding universe of consumer nonconformity.
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