Towards an anthropology of acquisition: ‘How did you get that?’

The production-distribution-consumption triad has structured how anthropologists understand exchange for roughly a century. This article argues for expanding this triad to include an explicit focus on acquisition – the systems, processes, and practices of acquiring. Acquisition also calls into question the linearity of the production-distribution-consumption chain, as acquisition takes place at different points and to various ends. Drawing on research in Cuba and Los Angeles, this article analyses food acquisition practices among these two relatively food-insecure communities, revealing the ways ethnographically grounded questions like ‘Where did you get that?’ or ‘How did you get that?’ can illuminate the complexities of acquisition and robust forms of meaning-making and intersubjective interaction that surround acquisition. Ultimately, this article argues that an anthropology of acquisition is uniquely positioned to illuminate aspects of subjectivity, identity production, political stance, and other forms of meaning-making associated with materiality. An anthropology of acquisition offers greater possibility for understanding the unequal experience of supply chains and distribution networks, as well as the possibilities for individual agency and assertion of preference in the process of consumption.