Author Archives: njdell11

  This photo is from a New York Times article titled, “When the Ring Gets Its Own Engagement Photo.” I have stumbled upon articles discussing the new trend of posting engagement photos all over Facebook.  I think this would be … Continue reading →

The next theorist I am going to use to analyze the symbolism of the engagement ring is Arjun Appadurai. His ideas of the international cultural flows that exist today use the notion, “scapes” to allow us to understand the fluid, … Continue reading →

Louis Pierre Althusser is a good cultural theorist to use for my research topic on the social practice of giving an engagement ring. He theorizes that a person’s desires, choices, intentions, preferences, and judgements are all products of social practices … Continue reading →

As my first attempt to use cultural theory to understand the significance of a diamond engagement ring, I would like to explore Stuart Hall’s philosophy on encoding and decoding. Hall challenges long-held assumptions of media messages and how they are consumed, … Continue reading →

In thinking more into my case-study research paper, I wanted to address the commodification of diamonds and the way diamonds fit into our culture. I found this advertisement and several other very telling ads that I will use it to … Continue reading →

My brother got married a few weeks ago to a woman he met at work. They dated for about a year until he proposed. The wedding date was set just a year and two months after the engagement.  Planning a … Continue reading →