1002:2018:2.2
no way to compare when less than two revisions
Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
— | 1002:2018:2.2 [2020/01/25 15:28] (current) – created - external edit 127.0.0.1 | ||
---|---|---|---|
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
+ | ~~DECKJS~~ | ||
+ | |||
+ | # Marcel Mauss and the gift # | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Marcel Mauss and the gift ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Ryan Schram | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mills 169 (A26) | ||
+ | |||
+ | ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au | ||
+ | |||
+ | Wednesday, August 8, 2018 | ||
+ | |||
+ | Available at: http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Ongka' | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | When we left off, Ongka of Kawelka was preparing a //moka//, a major gift of 600 pigs, cassowaries, | ||
+ | |||
+ | It might be easy to think that the //moka// system or the Kula ring are relics from a distant past. In fact they are happening now, and systems like this continue to function in many societies around the world. This practice of giving and receiving is a foundation of social life and social order in many communities. I would even say that it is part of all communities, | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## The Moka is a system | ||
+ | |||
+ | > Moka isn't just about pigs, it's about all kinds of things. The Kawelka say that it keeps the peace. It's a way of making a name for yourself. It holds the tribe together. It's the big social event. On a more general level, Moka is a system, a framework. All over the world people operate within some kind of framework, Moka is one of them. (Nairn 1976, 44:50) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Nairn, Charlie. 1976. Ongka’s Big Moka. Granada Television. http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Classical Anthropology ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Societies are wholes which are greater than the sum of their parts. | ||
+ | * Societies have boundaries and structure which maintain order. | ||
+ | * The main question for anthropology is why a society stays the same. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## Durkheim and Mauss ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | **[[:Emile Durkheim]]** is a founding figure of sociology and anthropology | ||
+ | |||
+ | * He wanted to analyze society as an objective fact | ||
+ | * Society is a collective consciousness, | ||
+ | |||
+ | **[[:Marcel Mauss]]** was a nephew and student of Durkheim | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Applied a Durkheimian analysis to economic activity | ||
+ | * [[: | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Western culture and social reality ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | ### Western culture ### | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Western culture values individualism. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Children are taught to be individuals. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Society and its rules is something that one should be able to choose. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ### Social reality ### | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Every person is, by definition, a member of a group. Most people | ||
+ | have very complex networks of ties to many people and groups. It's | ||
+ | just part of being a person. | ||
+ | |||
+ | * No one can really be outside of society. There' | ||
+ | wolf child, or a Robinson Crusoe. These are myths. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Gifts ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the islands of PNG, fishermen exchange fish for garden food with | ||
+ | gardeners. Fishermen always cook their food in fresh water, even | ||
+ | though they live by the sea. Inland gardeners cook their food in sea | ||
+ | water, even though they have fresh water nearby. **" | ||
+ | great love of exchange, they exchange even the water of their | ||
+ | respective dwelling places and carry it home for the boiling of their | ||
+ | food" | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many people throughout the world exchange things they don't need for | ||
+ | things they don't need. They even exchange identical things, like | ||
+ | water. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Why? | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Gifts create obligations ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mauss says: Because you have to. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Gifts come with obligations because it is part of the system of total | ||
+ | services. Specifically, | ||
+ | obligation**: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * The obligation to **give** | ||
+ | * The obligation to **receive** | ||
+ | * The obligation to **reciprocate**, | ||
+ | given. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## Gifts have spirit ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | For Mauss, the Maori word *hau* means the " | ||
+ | When someone gives a gift, they give part of themselves. "The *hau* | ||
+ | wishes to return to its birthplace" | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Total services ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | What, then, is society? Mauss says that the essence of society is a | ||
+ | " | ||
+ | else, and other people do everything for you. It is a state of total | ||
+ | interdependence. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## Reciprocity is everywhere ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Gift economies are not simply societies in which there' | ||
+ | gifts. A gift economy is a society in which reciprocity is a "total | ||
+ | social phenomenon." | ||
+ | |||
+ | Even societies which have created the possibility of individualism, | ||
+ | the the West, still have gifts and still have reciprocity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## Moka is a competitive system ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | The moka, and the potlatch, are systems of total services of an | ||
+ | agonistic type. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Agonistic means that the sides in an exchange are competing to give | ||
+ | more services to the other, and to raise the stakes of reciprocity. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Competing for prestige versus gaining profit? | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## What if...? ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | What if we lived in a world in which everything was a gift, and everything possessed a *hau*? | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## Spheres of exchange ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Many societies organize objects into distinct, ranked **[[: | ||
+ | |||
+ | 1. Women as wives | ||
+ | 2. Prestige items: brass rods, *tugudu* cloth, slaves | ||
+ | 3. Subsistence items: food, utensils, chickens, tools | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some things, like land, cannot be exchanged for anything, but are inherited. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## Two points about spheres ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | * In spite of predictions to the contrary, money does not collapse all spheres into one market. Often money exchanges are placed in their own sphere. | ||
+ | * Western and " | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ## What's next ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | The relationship between money and the gift is complicated and can be | ||
+ | interpreted in many ways. we will need to come back to it more next | ||
+ | week, and again and again. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In tutorial, you can debate these ideas. Which side are you on? | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## References ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | Bohannan, Paul. 1955. “Some Principles of Exchange and Investment among the Tiv.” American Anthropologist, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Fortune, R. F. 1932. Sorcerers of Dobu: The Social Anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Mauss, Marcel. 2000 [1925]. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Translated by W. D. Halls. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ## A guide to the unit ## | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{page> | ||
1002/2018/2.2.txt · Last modified: 2020/01/25 15:28 by 127.0.0.1