Exchange is an essential, and multifaceted, part of economic systems. Types of exchange include market principle, prevalent in capitalist societies, redistribution, or moving goods to a center, and reciprocity, exchanging goods. One type of exchange that will be discussed is Kula exchange in Trobriand Islands. In this trading ring armbands, called mwali, are passed clockwise, and necklaces, called soulava or bagi, are passed counterclockwise from island to island in the Trobriand ring. This form of exchange most closely resembles a kind of balanced reciprocity, in which goods are passed between somewhat closely related individuals with the expectation of a return at some point. Another type of exchange that will be discussed is the coffee trade around the world, especially as it has become specialized in the last century. This kind of exchange most closely resembles a market principle, where items are bought and sold. While different, these varying types of exchange promote different relationships and hierarchies. Exchange is an essential part of what defines not only a person’s individual identity, but also their cultural identity.
Exchange leads to the formation and regulation of social connections and relationships. Kula exchange creates and maintains business and social relationships, shown in the works of Malinowski and Davis. These anthropologists describe a trade system in which men partner with men on other islands and are expected to trade only with these partners. The strict rules of Kula define these relationships and how they form, only after a man has bought his way into the ring. These business relationships become friendships, because the men end up spending large amounts of time with each other. Malinowski writes...
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...nciple can even apply to the exchange of coffee across international lines. Coffee moves from distant countries to warehouses in the United States to consumers. This exchange is only possible because people can interact through hierarchies of trade that have emerged through the specialization of coffee. Social relationships and personal identity are defined by types of exchange.
Works Cited
Kula: Ring of Power.
1991 Michael Balson dir. 52 mins. Sky Visuals.
Davis, John
1992 Exchange. Buckingham, England: Open University Press.
Malinowski, Bronislaw
2010 [1922] Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagos of Melanesian New Guinea. Oxford: Benediction Classics.
Roseberry, William
1996 The Rise of Yuppie Coffees and the Reimagination of Class in the United States. American Anthropologist 98 (4): 762-775.
In the rough and tropical island of Papua New Guinea, lived an exceptional aggregation of individuals called, The Gebusi. In the 1980's, The Gebusi tribe was anything besides up to date and acculturated. The Gebusi had their own particular singular and special customs and conventions that they rehearsed and accompanied. The Gebusi tribe took part in custom homosexuality, divination or witchcraft was exceedingly respected and polished, and they partook in particular sister-trade relational unions. By 1998-99, The Gebusi tribe had made another lifestyle. The Gebusi had gotten accustomed with new social convictions, modernization due to “western ways” that had changed their lives until the end of time especially changing their ways and view on gender roles and sexuality.
Columbian Exchange, which also call the Grand Exchange, is an exchange of animals, crops, pollution (European and African), culture, infectious diseases and ideology between the eastern and western hemisphere in 15th and 16th centuries. Alfred W. Crosby first proposed this concept in his book “ The Columbian Exchange”, which published in 1972.
“The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea” is a book written by Gilbert Herdt. It is based on a case study Herdt did during the 1970’s of the culture of the Sambia people. His study took place in Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. He didn’t know much about their language, however through out his time there he was able to learn their language and customs. As he settled into their village, he mostly slept in the clubhouse with the other Nilangu villagers; however, eventually they built a house for him to stay at. Herdt had a great interest in gaining new knowledge about the Sambia culture.
Since these traditions have become apparent through centuries they are customary and have a tendency to lack individualism, as the group among which a person lives is seen as more important over the individual. In many parts of the world today, you can examine such cultures and see the ways that individuals offer themselves to family and community life.
Bentley, J., & Ziegler, H. (2008). Trade and encounters a global perspective on the past. (4th ed., Vol. 1, pp. 182-401). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Reynolds, H. (1990). With The White People: The crucial role of Aborigines in the exploration and development of Australia. Australia: Penguin Books
The step from having some goods and needing others to trading with those who have the needed goods and want the overabundant ones cannot be understood or warranted without the pre...
In Papua New Guinea a moka is used as a ritualized system of exchange. Not only did Ongka want to give a big moka he had to. Mokas are given and years later they must be repaid
In the chronological, descriptive ethnography Nest in the Wind, Martha Ward described her experience on the rainy, Micronesian island of Pohnpei using both the concepts of anthropological research and personal, underlying realities of participant observation to convey a genuine depiction of the people of Pohnpei. Ward’s objective in writing Nest in the Wind was to document the concrete, specific events of Pohnpeian everyday life and traditions through decades of change. While informing the reader of the rich beliefs, practices, and legends circulated among the people of Pohnpei, the ethnography also documents the effects of the change itself: the island’s adaptation to the age of globalization and the survival of pre-colonial culture.
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
The books author, James (Sákéj) Youngblood Henderson came to write this book as a result of living with his wife, Marie Battiste (a celebrated Mi’kmaw scholar and educator) in her Mi’kmaq community of Eskasoni (10). It was the community of Eskasoni that compelled Henderson to compile their histories in a form that would not disrupt the Mi’kmaq worldviews, culture and spirituality they represent but as well easily conveyable to non-Aboriginal peoples.
The practice of trading and bartering of commodities has been around since the beginning of time. The concept of commodity chains was developed by Terence Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein in an attempt to understand the spread of capitalism and economic change. (Bair & Werner, 2011) The emergence of capitalism has brought about an anthropogenic phenomenon know as globalization as a means to create profit and in doing so altered competitive dynamics (Gereffi 1999). Globalisation of economies has lead to the construction of chains of production, distribution and consumption transcending borders across the world. Gereffi (1994) identified these chains as Global Commodity Chains, using them as a method to analyze the global economy.
Therefore, commerce flourished in Europe and Neo Europe, financial transactions, from Amsterdam, to China, started to be a common affair. The preciosities of yesterdays, now, were everyday commodities and not longer privileged goods only for the few.
Jennifer Unger & C. Anderson Johnson, “Explaining Exercise Behavior and Satisfaction with Social Exchange Theory,” Perceptual and Motor Skills 81 (1995): 603-608.
The Dolgan and Nganasan food sharing process consisted of people supplying resources through kinship. Much of the sharing with meat comes from the reciprocal relationships with the animals they hunt. They believe animals must be treated properly even though they are not human. It is said in this society that food sharing will contribute to good future hunting. They believe the animal is giving itself to the hunter and must be cared for by the means of sharing. Food sharing in this society is related to the informal sharing economy. Also, in the Dolgan and Nganasan group’s products that are bought are also shared between people because of how expensive they can be. Another society has had very similar implications in their food sharing process as well.