You are what you buy

And you were what you bought even in 17th century Britain, where consumer culture was born.

"Possessions were symbols of refinement and politeness. They helped to define individual identity. They even shaped their owners’ physical deportment and behaviour, for knives and forks, cups and teapots, fragile porcelain and increasingly delicate furniture imposed a distinctively mannered way of eating, drinking, moving and sitting. In this way the consumption of goods created social differences as well as expressing them." So writes Thomas Keith in "To Buy or Not to Buy: The Origins of Good Taste."