A history of consumption...sort of.

. In a society where what you own corresponds with how you are deemed by your peers, where conspicuous consumption is a reality and your ‘choice of goods continually creates certain patterns of discrimination, overlaying or reinforcing others. Goods become the visible parts of culture’[1], an intrinsic part of society that is more likely to progress than wane.
Mankind’s drive for consumption has been developing progressively with time. Nodmadism saw our ancestors (from what we can tell) consuming by food gathering and hunting. They lived in natural shelter which meant that with ‘the absence of personal and community property, the focus of the economy was on daily survival’[2] At the end of this era, Seminomads became dominant and a rise in more permanent settlements was brought about due to the rise in domestication of animals and innovation of agriculture. These settlements then developed to villages and agricultural production began to include; planning, cultivating, fertilising, seeding, irrigating, guarding, harvesting and storing. The final stage is consuming.
From a more communal way of living we developed into more personal beings and therefore required goods that reflected our individuality; different clothes, items to decorate living spaces and means of recreation. A space with a place to sleep, eat and somewhere to bathe was once adequate but now we expect different rooms for each practise, each with different furniture and decoration, each one a conscious decision to represent a certain element of ourselves.
[1] The Uses of Goods, The World of Goods, Douglas and Isherwood
[2] Genesis of the City, Ethics and Urban Design, Golany, Gideon S.