Disposition of possessions among families of people living with AIDS

The consumer‐research field has not yet explored the consumption dynamics of gay and lesbian chosen families. Also, there is currently a lack of work on death, dying, and disposition of possessions. The purpose of this article is to report the findings of a study of recipients' meanings of possessions in a very specialized context: dying of and death from AIDS. Three broad conceptual categories or themes emerged that fully described the meanings of dispositions and problems experienced among the chosen family: possessions and remembrance, inclusions and exclusions through disposition, and the means and meanings of final disposition. Overall, these consumers are trying to consume in prosocial manners and in doing so, negotiate the family unit and encounter difficulty through lack of social and legal recognition of their family bonds. Given that the time horizon of the relationship trajectory had been drastically curtailed, informants appeared to enter an entirely different paradigm of gift giving and receipt. This paradigm may well be one of agapic love in which gifts are given in the spirit of expressing altruistic, unselfish regard for family members and so negotiate reworked ideal of family. In this context, the agapic paradigm appears to stress the creative agency of the individual as opposed to the structuring effects of preexisting norms and conditions surrounding gift giving.