status symbols and luxury goods 49
indicator. The Cuban regime invested a lot of effort and resources in pre
senting Cuba as a “world medical power.” In order to promote this image,
Cuba exported health personnel to developing countries in Africa, Asia,
and Latin America.
Finally, domestic processes of classification through invidious compari
son can affect the choice of international status symbols and vice versa.
Weinberg ( 2003 ), for example, examines the reasons behind the adoption
of the cavalry as a weapon of choice during the medieval period. He claims
that while initially successful, over time the use of a lance became waste
ful and proved ineffective when facing infantry. It is therefore difficult to
explain the popularity of the cavalry in feudal Europe based solely on the
primary utility of the lance. Instead, he suggests an explanation that em
phasizes the role of the horse as a conspicuously costly status symbol: “The
great expense of this tactic was an advantage, not a drawback, because
peasants could not afford a destrier and armor. The reason that foot sol
diers were not used in battle is not that they have been ineffective, but that
they were common” (Weinberg 2003 , 58 ; see also Tucker 2001 ; Howard
2001 ). In fact, war fighting itself was a status symbol. Commoners were not
supposed to fight and were not protected by the laws of war (Keen 1965 ,
19 ). Subsequently, medieval European armies tended to replicate feudal
hierarchy on the battlefield: a knight “firmly believed that, since he was
infinitely superior to any peasant in the social scale, he must consequently
excel him to the same extent in military value. He was, therefore, prone
not only to despise all descriptions of infantry, but to regard their appear
ance on the field against him as a species of insult to his class pride” (Oman
1885 , 102 ). As a consequence, for example, the French army resisted giving
archers a greater role in their battle plans and continued to rely on cav
alry despite repeated calamitous defeats in Crécy ( 1346 ), Poitiers ( 1356 ),
and Agincourt ( 1415 ) (Tuchman 1978 ; George 1895 , 736 ). In the case of
the French army, domestic class structures resulted in significant military
defeats, culminating in the capture and imprisonment of the French king.
The feudal upper classes preferred an inferior tactic internationally be
cause its cost offered a convenient venue for invidious comparison domes
tically. In this example, domestic processes of classification defined the
types of weaponry that became prestigious internationally. Actors who
used cavalry were seen as more “civilized” than those who relied on infan
try or archery.^15
Medieval cavalry offers a second image model of prestige policies.
However, the interaction between the domestic and the international can
flow in the other direction as well. The Italian tower mania is an example
