When city slickers dress up in cowboy boots and Wranglers to attend the National Western Stock Show, they often view livestock as pet-like animals. Many have a hard time thinking of the animals as the source of the steak dinner or hamburger they eat.
Lisa Pe帽aloza, associate professor of marketing at CU-Boulder's Leeds School of Business, explains how cultural meanings and values are created by the juxtaposition of ranchers and non-ranchers in her paper, "Consuming the American West: Animating Cultural Meaning and Memory at a Stock Show and Rodeo."
The paper was published in the December 2001 edition of the Journal of Consumer Research.
According to Pe帽aloza, conflict arises because while most ranchers and non-ranchers who attend the stock show experience nostalgia for the Old West, many non-ranchers do not recognize the financial implications of the animals for the ranchers whose livelihoods depend on livestock sales.
Pe帽aloza notes that many ranchers in the West, particularly those who produce cattle for meat, have a difficult time surviving in an increasingly competitive market for beef. "A paradox occurs because the commercialization and marketing of cattle challenges the western way of life, while the stock show plays up a lifestyle that is becoming extinct," Pe帽aloza said.
She also explained that cultural meanings and memories are created at the stock show because it is a rare chance for city folk to experience a lifestyle that encompasses historic core American values.
According to Penaloza, the cowboy image is a mystical figure filled with complexities. The stock show taps into many pressing social issues related to the values the country stands for, such as freedom, independence and community, and each is challenged as well as reinforced by market dynamics.
"People tend to celebrate the cowboys' winning of the West, but they don't consider the losses, such as a decreasing number of family-owned farms and ranches in our nation, nor the experiences of the native Americans and Latinos," said Pe帽aloza. "The image of the cowboy is not as simple as it used to be."
Pe帽aloza's research interests include expressions of culture in the marketplace and gender, race and ethnic influences on marketing practice and consumer behavior, as part of the Leeds School's focus on the study of business and society.