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--- tiv_spheres_of_exchange [2014/07/07 20:05] – Ryan Schram (user)
+++ tiv_spheres_of_exchange [2014/07/16 21:31] – Ryan Schram (admin)
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 # Tiv spheres of exchange #
-The Tiv people of northern Nigeria organize their local system of exchanges into separate spheres. While Tiv people regularly exchange with each other, not every objects can be exchanged for any other object, and each exchange is conducted in a certain manner and only with certain people. The model of spheres of exchange is an attempt by Paul Bohannan (1955) to explain these rules.
+The Tiv people of northern Nigeria organize their local system of exchanges into separate spheres. While Tiv people regularly exchange with each other, not every objects can be exchanged for any other object, and each exchange is conducted in a certain manner and only with certain people. The model of spheres of exchange is an attempt by Paul Bohannan (1955) to explain these rules. Basically the spheres are:
-The first sphere of exchange applies to objects of subsistence, foodstuffs, some livestock, some tools, and utensils. Tiv consider this to be the most open form of exchange, and use a word which can be translated as 'market.' Anyone can exchange products with anyone, and once the transaction is complete, the two parties need not have anything to do with one another. Notably, Tiv prefer not to 'market' with friends and kin, because it interferes with the social role they have to play in this situation. The second sphere of exchange concerns exchanges of prestigious items, such as white, woven //tugudu// cloth and brass rods. These cannot simply be exchanged in 'market' trade. They can only be exchanged for each other and for similarly prestigious items. In this category also once fell slaves. Slaves could not be bought and sold for food, but rights to the labor of a slave could be transferred in exchange for a certain amount of brass rods and cloth. The final sphere of exchange is not what one would normally consider part of the domain of economy or transaction. The third sphere is the sphere of marriage. Tiv do not, unlike some societies, practice marriage by purchase, or brideprice, or dowry for that matter. A good marriage is when a woman marries a man of another kin group, goes to live with that group, and then later her husband's sister or other female member of his group goes to marry one of the wife's brothers. In other words, marriage is an exchange between groups and people are the gifts. But unlike the second sphere, in which people can be exchanged for objects, marriages can only result from a relationship of exchange in which one person is substituted for one person.
+^ Sphere ^ Items                                        ^
+| I      | Women as wives                               |
+| II     | Brass rods, *tugudu* cloth, slaves           |
+| III    | Foodstuffs, utensils, chickens, goats, tools |
-Exchange spheres are ranked. The first concerns goods which are lower in value than those of the second, and so on. Bohannan also described ways that Tiv individuals acquire wealth in this system. The proper way to wealth for Tiv is 'investment', not in the sense of reaping more wealth, but by turning lower-ranked items into higher-ranked items, and by improving one's relative position in the community. They describe it with a proverb of a man who owns a chick, raises it to maturity, and then gets the eggs, raises them, trades them for goats, and so on. In other words, you can gain wealth by making use of natural forms of growth and by converting this into superior, more prestigious items. If, for instance, someone only has abundant foodstuffs, but doesn't invest this in prestigious items, they are foolish. If someone attempts to exchange brass rods with lots of foodstuffs, this person would be seen as smart, savvy and ambitious. They feel bad for the person on the other end of this exchange; they may be well-off, but they are losing prestige in this exchange. This person takes priceless valuables which he has probably held for many years and give them up for food.
+The first sphere of exchange applies to objects of subsistence, foodstuffs, some livestock, some tools, and utensils. Tiv consider this to be the most open form of exchange, and use a word which can be translated as 'market.' Anyone can exchange products with anyone, and once the transaction is complete, the two parties need not have anything to do with one another. Notably, Tiv prefer not to 'market' with friends and kin, because it interferes with the social role they have to play in this situation. The second sphere of exchange concerns exchanges of prestigious items, such as white, woven //tugudu// cloth and brass rods. These cannot simply be exchanged in 'market' trade. They can only be exchanged for each other and for similarly prestigious items. In this category also once fell slaves. Slaves could not be bought and sold for food, but rights to the labor of a slave could be transferred in exchange for a certain amount of brass rods and cloth. The final sphere of exchange is not what one would normally consider part of the domain of economy or transaction. The third sphere is the sphere of marriage. Tiv frown upon marriage by purchase, or brideprice, or dowry for that matter. A good marriage is when a woman marries a man of another kin group, goes to live with that group, and then later her husband's sister or other female member of his group goes to marry one of the wife's brothers. In other words, marriage is ideally an exchange between groups and people are the gifts. But unlike the second sphere, in which people can be exchanged for objects, marriages can only result from a relationship of exchange in which one person is substituted for one person.
+Exchange spheres are ranked. The first concerns goods which are lower in value than those of the second, and so on. Bohannan also described ways that Tiv individuals acquire wealth in this system. The proper way to wealth for Tiv is 'investment', not in the sense of reaping more wealth, but by turning lower-ranked items into higher-ranked items, and by improving one's relative position in the community. They describe it with a proverb of a man who owns a chick, raises it to maturity, and then gets the eggs, raises them, trades them for goats, and so on. In other words, you can gain wealth by making use of natural forms of growth and by converting this into superior, more prestigious items. If, for instance, someone only has abundant foodstuffs, but doesn't invest this in prestigious items, they are foolish. If someone attempts to acquire brass rods with lots of foodstuffs, this person would be seen as smart, savvy and ambitious. They feel bad for the person on the other end of this exchange; they may be well-off, but they are losing prestige in this exchange. This person takes priceless valuables which he has probably held for many years and give them up for food.
 At the time Bohannan was doing his research, Tiv was part of a colonial market economy, and Tiv people often made use of the state's money in market exchanges. Money was at that time something that belonged to the lowest sphere of exchange. Money could not be used to buy prestige goods. Bohannan foresaw a time when the logic of money would overwhelm the system of spheres. The Tiv system was multicentric, but general-purpose currency would collapse all the spheres into a unicentric system in which everything had a price expressed in money, and all exchanges would be market exchange.