Taking into account the announcement of the re-edition of her book The World of Goods, originally published in 1979, the author develops a reflection on the intellectual context in which her work was created. She discusses the bases of the importance of Consumption Studies for Economics and Anthropology, suggesting that they help to attain the project of "totality" in the study of social phenomena, following the notion of Marcel Mauss - an author who exerted a great influence in the The World of Goods. The article also analyses classical works and discussions about exchanges that contributed to the reflections developed in the book. She resumes her central point, that is, that poverty must be understood as a process concerning the exclusion of information. In this sense, she presents the reasons the study on consumption is of great value for Anthropology.
Anthropology; consumption; Economics; gift
