SUMMARY: The abundance of goods in the modern world has a tendency to prejudice interpretation of their value, but the way people value their goods is complex, relative and changeable — scarcity is just one factor. There is a long history of value theorization across the social sciences, but archaeological considerations of value remain uncommon and focused on prestige goods. In this paper, I review alternative conceptions of value through the lens of the modern world, with an example of Spode creamware used by a governor in the early decades of colonial Sydney. I argue that the process of devaluation, through discard and waste, offers a unique archaeological understanding of the shifting values people of the modern world placed on commodities.

中文翻译：

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走向价值考古：现代世界的观点

简介：现代世界中商品的丰富性倾向于损害对商品价值的解释，但是人们对商品的估价方式是复杂，相对和多变的-稀缺只是其中一个因素。在整个社会科学中，价值理论化的历史由来已久，但考古学对价值的考量仍然很少见，而是集中在名贵商品上。在本文中，我通过现代世界的视角回顾了替代性的价值观念，并以悉尼殖民地初期几十年来州长使用的Spode奶油制品为例。我认为，贬值的过程（通过抛弃和浪费）对现代世界人们对商品的价值观念转变提供了独特的考古学理解。