"Goods are neutral, their uses are social."?

Question

Can anyone give me some examples of objects/things that have social use (though they have no inherent value)?

Answer 1

A log is neutral, neither good nor bad - it just is. It can be burned as fuel for warmth and cooking (positive social value) or used as a weapon (negative social value).

Answer 2

Clocks, telephones, ballgowns.  Nothing has inherent value...it only has the value we ascribe to the object.  Goods are neutral--all goods.  We name them, define them, give them a role that may change contingent on social contexts.

Answer 3

Gold

Salt

Large stones

All have been used for "money" in different societies - suggesting that they have "value" yet to other cultures they mean nothing.  

Actually any item only has value as a result of what a society assigns to it.  Even food items.  There are many items that you or I eat and find delicious, but some cultures would not even consider them food - or to turn it around - typical americans try to kill grubs in the lawn because they are a pest, but in some societies, grubs are an important food source.

Perhaps the best example to think about is the sale of Manhattan to the Native Americans for "24 guilders" worth of beads and trinkets.  this low value was assigned to those items by the Dutch, but to the Natives those items had a great value.

A few years later the Europeans were trading guns, blankets, kettles etc. (items they attached little worth to) to the natives in exchange for Beaver furs (something the Europeans found extremely valuable.  From the Native point of view they were getting great, valuable and very useful items for old used up Beaver skins, something of little value to them (most people do not realize that the Europeans were actually after the short undercoat hairs of the Beavers which are waterproof -used to make hats - but did not necessarily care about the longer overcoat hairs - which the Natives used to keep warm-.  So pelts that had been worn and wore out the overcoat were often seen as the best to obrain by European trades - less bulk to deal with and transport)

DM

Answer 4

Paper money.