109 Rosana Pinheiro-Machado The aTTrIbuTIon of auThenTIcITy To “real” and “fake” branded commodITes In brazIl and chIna 1 Chapter 4 IntroduCtIon Statistics frequently show that Brazil and China are the greatest consumers of fake and pirated goods in the world. 2 The reason given for this kind of consumption is usually that both nations are developing countries marked by a a level of social stratiication that sets poor and rich irmly apart. From this perspective, poverty, or rather “lack of money,” is the main reason why subjects opt for a cheaper fake product instead of paying the higher price for genuine brands. In this chapter, I question this economy-driven logic. On the one hand, I agree that social inequality and poverty are impor- tant factors behind the presence of fake goods in both the producing and consuming sectors. This market in fakes is crucial for the generation of jobs and income in less-privileged areas of society. It involves millions of formal and informal workers through its processes of production and dis- tribution. For the consumption of luxury goods in particular, the acquisi- tion of branded commodities performs an important role in mediating the disputes and interactions that occur between different classes and social groups. Brands—as portable signs that move together with the individuals that possess them—symbolise “social well being,” and are associated with luxury, power, and wealth. On the other hand, this simplistic explanation that lack of money is always behind the choice of copies over genuine goods does not explain, for instance, why some people of low income in Brazil save almost everything they make to buy real products or why some individuals of the new Chinese elite use fake goods. Furthermore, if individuals were exclusively following the pragmatic reasons suggested by this perspec- tive on poverty, then, when shopping for a purse, they would simply choose the cheapest product. Rather, the explanation for and meaning behind the consumption of any commodity can only be apprehended