Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- 1002:3.1.2 [2019/09/23 21:09] – [Moka exchange in the Highlands] Ryan Schram (admin)
+++ 1002:3.1.2 [Unknown date] (current) – removed - external edit (Unknown date) 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-~~DECKJS~~
-# Gifts as a total social phenomenon
-## Gifts as a total social phenomenon
-Ryan Schram
-ANTH 1002: Anthropology in the world
-Module 3, Week 1, Lecture 2
-Social Sciences Building (A02), Room 410
-ryan.schram@sydney.edu.au
-September 25, 2019
-Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/1002/3.1.2
-## Reciprocity is everywhere
-Reciprocity is not something that one only finds in a few societies. Even societies which have created the possibility of individualism, for instance "the West," also exchange gifts and also impose the obligations of reciprocity.
-Even if people do not speak of their relationships or the institutions of society in terms of obligations of reciprocity, these obligations are still present in some way in these societies because, as Mauss argues, reciprocity itself is fundamental to society as a total system.
-## Gifts are a total social phenomenon
-Gifts come with obligations. Specifically, giving a gift involves **a triple
-obligation**:
-* The obligation to **give**
-* The obligation to **receive**
-* The obligation to **reciprocate**, or to give back to one who has
-  given.
-Mauss says that these obligations arise from the fundamental fact that society is **a system of total services** in which everything one does is for someone else, and other people do everything for you. It is a state of total interdependence.
-## Quiz question: One of these things is not like the other
-Go to Canvas and take **Quiz 14: That's not reciprocity**.
-The quiz has an answer which Ryan thinks is "right" and you will get a point for getting it "right" (but you can take the quiz multiple times).
-Ryan will reveal the password in class.
-## Yam gardening in Auhelawa
-People of Auhelawa grow a variety of indigenous and introduced crops, but everyone grows these two species of yam:
-* *ʻwateya* ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_alata|Dioscorea alata]])
-* *halutu* ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioscorea_esculenta|Dioscorea esculenta]])
-A harvest of *ʻwateya* is divided into (1) gifts to other kin, (2) seed lines for one's children, (3) food for one's family. *Halutu* is similar ranked and classified, and the best of the harvest is given as a gift.
-## Moka exchange in the Highlands
-The *moka* (and the *potlatch* as described by Eriksen) is a system 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.
-Moka exchanges make people's economic behavior subordinate to the political sphere. The leaders of Kawelka, big men like Ongka, are those who can coordinate many different reciprocal exchanges with many people to create a group (see Nairn 1976).
-## Reciprocity is everywhere
-When one lives in a society based on buying and selling, one is trained to see oneself as an individual, and one becomes blind to the ways in which one is part of a system of total services. Yet all societies at some level are systems of total services, even if their members can't see this or don't want to see this.
-## References
-Nairn, Charlie. 1976. *Ongka’s Big Moka*. Granada Television. http://www.der.org/films/ongkas-big-moka.html.