Qualitative Sociology

, Volume 17, Issue 1, pp 29–42 | Cite as

Aesthetes in the marketplace: Collectors in the gun business

  • Barbara Stenross
Article

Abstract

Marketplaces can provide settings for the appreciation of beauty and the creation of community. The author examines how gun collectors who buy and sell guns continue to see themselves as aesthetes rather than dealers. Gun collector-dealers turn economic encounters at commercial gun shows into occasions for teaching others the symbolic uses of guns — as artifacts, curios, andobjets d'art. Economic relations can produce aesthetic value even when the objects exchanged are conventionally defined as symbols of violence and not beauty.

Key words

marketplace guns collectors 
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Copyright information

© Human Sciences Press, Inc 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • Barbara Stenross
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of SociologyUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel HillChapel Hill

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