ANT 252 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Trobriand Islands, Marcel Mauss, Substantivism
Document Summary
Cultural economies: cultural economics, to a cultural economist, a close relationship exists between value (worth) and. In the 1910s, malinowski took a functionalist approach to the kula of the trobriand. High ranking men gave ornamental shell armbands (mwali) and necklaces (soulava) to lifelong exchange partners on other islands. The shell armbands and necklaces symbolized the relationships between the people trading them. Only the higher ranking people in the trobriand societies could participate in. These ritualized kula exchanges functioned to enhance the status of individual men and distribute goods people could not otherwise get on their home islands. Offered another functionalist perspective, but stressed social cohesion/group solidarity. Malinowski focused on in-depth ethnography of the trobriands, mauss took a comparative approach. The gifts would build the relationships between people, put trust in other people, etc. Published the gift, which compares gift exchange and its functions in a wide range of non-western societies. Insisted that gift exchange has three dimensions.
