A custom known as the kula exchange or kula ring where great risks are taken to exchange gifts is prevalent in what part of the world?
"in a ranked society. Kula ring Kula, also known as the Kula exchange or Kularing, is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The Kula ring was made famous by the father of modern anthropology, Bronisław Malinowski, who used this test case to argue for the universality of rational decision making (even among 'natives'), and for the cultural nature of the object of their effort. Malinowski's path-breaking work, ""Argonauts of the Western Pacific"" (1922), directly confronted the question, ""why would men risk life and limb to travel across huge expanses of dangerous ocean"
"the Massim archipelago, including the Trobriand Islands, and involves thousands of individuals. Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by canoe in order to exchange Kula valuables which consist of red shell-disc necklaces (""veigun"" or ""soulava"") that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction) and white shell armbands (""mwali"") that are traded in the southern direction (circling counterclockwise). If the opening gift was an armband, then the closing gift must be a necklace and vice versa. The exchange of Kula valuables is also accompanied by the trade in other items known as ""gimwali"" (barter). The terms"
"in various lower spheres of exchange. The relationship giver-receiver is always asymmetrical: the former are higher in status. Also, Kula valuables are ranked according to value and age, as are the relationships that are created through their exchange. Participants will often strive to obtain particularly valuable and renowned Kula objects whose owner's fame will spread quickly through the archipelago. Such a competition unfolds through different persons offering ""pokala"" (offerings) and ""kaributu"" (solicitory gifts) to the owner, thus seeking to induce him to engage in a gift exchange relationship involving the desired object. Kula exchange therefore involves a complex system of"
"of participation vary from region to region. Whereas on the Trobriand Islands the exchange is monopolised by the chiefs, in Dobu all men can participate. All Kula valuables are non-use items traded purely for purposes of enhancing one's social status and prestige. Carefully prescribed customs and traditions surround the ceremonies that accompany the exchanges which establish strong, ideally lifelong relationships between the exchange parties (""karayta'u"", ""partners""). The act of giving, as Mauss wrote, is a display of the greatness of the giver, accompanied by shows of exaggerated modesty in which the value of what is given is actively played down."
"with Bronisław Malinowski's description of the Kula ring in the Trobriand Islands during World War I. The Kula trade appeared to be gift-like since Trobrianders would travel great distances over dangerous seas to give what were considered valuable objects without any guarantee of a return. Malinowski's debate with the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss quickly established the complexity of ""gift exchange"" and introduced a series of technical terms such as reciprocity, inalienable possessions, and prestation to distinguish between the different forms of exchange. According to anthropologists Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry, it is the unsettled relationship between market and non-market exchange"
"a whole set of exchange practices in tribal societies characterized by ""total prestations"", i.e., a system of gift giving with political, religious, kinship and economic implications. These societies' economies are marked by the competitive exchange of gifts, in which gift-givers seek to out-give their competitors so as to capture important political, kinship and religious roles. Other examples of this ""potlatch type"" of gift economy include the Kula ring found in the Trobriand Islands. Potlatch A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, among whom it is traditionally"
"force in traditional non-Western societies. Marcel Mauss referred to the gift as a “total social phenomenon”, fraught with ritual and socio political as well as material significance. Though some objects, such as armbands or shell necklaces in the kula ring that runs through several island groups off the coast of Papua New Guinea, might induce some form of prestige based competition, the terms of exchange are significantly different than a monetary transaction under a modern capitalist system. While Appadurai actually describes ritual objects as a type of commodity, he couches them as such under significantly different terms than the market-based"
"appear to be worthless trinkets?"" Malinowski carefully traced the network of exchanges of bracelets and necklaces across the Trobriand Islands, and established that they were part of a system of exchange (the Kula ring), and that this exchange system was clearly linked to political authority. Malinowski's study became the subject of debate with the French anthropologist, Marcel Mauss, author of ""The Gift"" (""Essai sur le don,"" 1925). Since then, the Kula ring has been central to the continuing anthropological debate on the nature of gift giving, and the existence of gift economies. The Kula ring spans 18 island communities of"
"of exchanges of bracelets and necklaces across the Trobriand Islands and established that they were part of a system of exchange (the Kula ring). He stated that this exchange system was clearly linked to political authority. In the 1920s and later, Malinowski's study became the subject of debate with the French anthropologist, Marcel Mauss, author of ""The Gift"" (""Essai sur le don"", 1925). Malinowski emphasized the exchange of goods between individuals and their non-altruistic motives for giving: they expected a return of equal or greater value (colloquially referred to as ""Indian giving""). In other words, reciprocity is an implicit part"
"related relationships determine most of Muyuw's political alliances. Fortune notes that Kula relationships are fragile, beset with various kinds of manipulation and deceit. The Muyuw for example state that the only way to get ahead in Kula is to lie, commenting that deceit frequently causes Kula relationships to fall apart. Similarly, Malinowski wrote of ""many squabbles, deep resentments and even feuds over real or imaginary grievances in the Kula exchange."" The Kula ring is a classic example of Marcel Mauss' distinction between gift and commodity exchange. Melanesians carefully distinguish gift exchange (Kula) and market exchange in the form of barter"
"gifts and countergifts whose rules are laid down by custom. The system is based on trust as obligations are not legally enforceable. However, strong social obligations and the cultural value system, in which liberality is exalted as highest virtue while meanness is condemned as shameful, create powerful pressures to ""play by the rules"". Those who are perceived as holding on to valuables and as being slow to give them away soon get a bad reputation (cf.). The Kula trade was organized differently in the more hierarchical parts of the Trobriand islands. There, only chiefs were allowed to engage in Kula"
"exchange. In hierarchical areas, individuals can earn their own kitomu shells, whereas in less hierarchical areas, they are always subject to the claims of matrilineal kin. And lastly, in the hierarchical areas, Kula necklaces and bracelets are saved for external exchange only; stone axe blades are used internally. In less hierarchical areas, exchange partners may lose their valuables to internal claims. As a result, most seek to exchange their Kula valuables with chiefs, who thus become the most successful players. The chiefs have saved their Kula valuables for external trade, and external traders seek to trade with them before they"
"lose their valuables to internal claims. The Kula exchange system can be viewed as reinforcing status and authority distinctions since the hereditary chiefs own the most important shell valuables and assume the responsibility for organizing and directing the ocean voyages. Damon (1980) notes that large amounts of Kula valuables are handled by a relatively small number of people, e.g. amongst the Muyuw three men account for over 50 percent of Kula valuables. The ten most influential men control about 90 percent of all and almost 100 percent of the most precious Kula objects. The movement of these valuables and the"
"giver. Thus, when they are transferred from one individual or group to another the objects reserve meaningful bonds associated with that of the giver and their lineage. The shell bracelets and necklaces given in exchange each have their own histories, and are thus ranked on the basis of who they have been exchanged to. There were, as well, less well known shells called ""kitomu"" which were individually owned (rather than being part of lineage history), which would be given to temporarily please a disappointed trade partner expecting a more valuable shell. The Kula trade was organized differently in the more"
"hierarchical parts of the Trobriand islands. There, only chiefs were allowed to engage in Kula exchange. In hierarchical areas, individuals can earn their own kitomu shells, whereas in less hierarchical areas, they are always subject to the claims of matrilineal kin. And lastly, in the hierarchical areas, Kula necklaces and bracelets are saved for external exchange only; stone axe blades are used internally. In less hierarchical areas, exchange partners may lose their valuables to internal claims. As a result, most seek to exchange their kula valuables with chiefs, who thus become the most successful players. The chiefs have saved their"
"Moka exchange The Moka is a highly ritualized system of exchange in the Mount Hagen area, Papua New Guinea, that has become emblematic of the anthropological concepts of ""gift economy"" and of ""Big man"" political system. Moka are reciprocal gifts of pigs through which social status is achieved. Moka refers specifically to the increment in the size of the gift; giving more brings greater prestige to the giver. However, the reciprocal gift giving may be confused with profit-seeking, as the lending and borrowing of money at interest. This gift exchange system was analyzed by anthropologist Marshall Sahlins as a means"
"Such a partnership involves strong mutual obligations such as hospitality, protection and assistance. According to the Muyuw, a good Kula relationship should be ""like a marriage"". Similarly, the saying around Papua is: ""once in the Kula, always in the Kula."" Kula valuables never remain for long in the hands of the recipients; rather, they must be passed on to other partners within a certain amount of time, thus constantly circling around the ring. However, even temporary possession brings prestige and status. Important chiefs can have hundreds of partners while less significant participants may only have fewer than a dozen. Even"
"such as Kula valuables return to their original owners after an incredible journey around the Trobriand islands. The gifts given in Kula exchange still remain, in some respects, the property of the giver. In the example used above, ""copyright"" is one of those bundled rights that regulate the use and disposition of a book. Gift-giving in many societies is complicated because ""private property"" owned by an individual may be quite limited in scope (see below). Productive resources, such as land, may be held by members of a corporate group (such as a lineage), but only some members of that group"
"of gift exchange, thus blurring the presumably sharp distinction between gifts and commodities. Market economies tend to reduce everything – ""including human beings, their labor, and their reproductive capacity"" – to the status of commodities. The rapid transfer of organ transplant technology to the third world has created a trade in organs, with sick bodies travelling to the global south for transplants, and healthy organs from the global south being transported to the richer global north, ""creating a kind of 'Kula ring' of bodies and body parts."" However, all commodities can also be singularized, or de-commodified, and transformed into gifts."
"Western visitors will often buy items from the Trobrianders using money. There is also a Kula exchange, which is a very important tradition among the Trobriand Islands. The women also use bundles of scored banana leaves. Each year, a man grows yams for his sister, and his daughter if she is married. The husband does not provide yams to his wife. The more yams a woman receives, the more powerful and rich she is. The husband is expected to give his wife's father or brother a gift in turn for the yams they give his wife. When the woman is"
"Kula valuables for external trade, and external traders seek to trade with them before they lose their valuables to internal claims. Kula exchange is the only way for an individual to achieve local prestige without local political action. But this prestige is fleeting and does not transform into permanent differences in rank because women's participation is minor and Kula shells lack cosmological authentication. It is not Kula shells but women's cloth wealth that is connected with matrilineal ancestors. It is for this reason that women retain high prestige and authority despite the fame of male Kula exchange players. Maurice Godelier"
"White elephant gift exchange A white elephant gift exchange, Yankee swap or Dirty Santa is a party game where amusing, impractical gifts are exchanged during festivities. Usually, the goal of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a genuinely valuable or highly sought-after item. The term ""white elephant"" refers to an extravagant, but impractical, gift that cannot be easily disposed. The phrase is said to come from the historic practice of the King of Siam (now Thailand) giving rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him, so that they might be ruined by"
"records. The tradition of giving bride price is practiced in many Asian countries, the Middle East, parts of Africa and in some Pacific Island societies, notably those in Melanesia. The amount changing hands may range from a token to continue the traditional ritual, to many thousands of US dollars in some marriages in Thailand, and as much as a $100,000 in exceptionally large bride prices in parts of Papua New Guinea where bride price is customary. Bridewealth is commonly paid in a currency that is not generally used for other types of exchange. According to French anthropologist Philippe Rospabé, its"
"(""gimwali""). Both reflect different underlying value systems and cultural customs. The Kula, Mauss wrote, is not supposed to be conducted like ""gimwali"". The former involves a solemn exchange ceremony, a ""display of greatness"" where the concepts of honour and nobility are central; the latter, in contrast, often done as part of Kula exchange journeys, involves hard bargaining and purely serves economic purposes. Kula valuables are inalienable in the sense that they (or an equivalent object) have to be returned to the original owner. Those who receive them can pass them on as gifts, but they cannot be sold as commodities"
"Hawala Hawala or hewala ( , meaning ""transfer"" or sometimes ""trust""), also known as ' in Persian, or hundi ( ) in Hindi or—in Somali, ' or —is a popular and informal value transfer system based not on the movement of cash, or on telegraph or computer network wire transfers between banks, but instead on the performance and honour of a huge network of money brokers (known as ""hawaladars""). While hawaladars are spread throughout the world, they are primarily located in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Indian subcontinent, operating outside of, or parallel to,"
"and dances. Karma is a festival of brothers and sisters. It rotates from one village to another. It's divided into three categories: Sarhul is a prominent festival of Oraon and is celebrated with dancing. People hold hands to form a circle. Musicians use traditional Indian instruments, sitting inside the circle. Men traditionally wear a white dhoti with a red border, while women wear a white sari with a red border. In the Bheja dance, dozens of young boys and girls gather at a particular place, form a chain by holding hands in alternate succession then dance . Kulamara Kulamara is"
"seven Kula valuables as ""kitoum"", while others do not own any. The fact that, at least in theory, all such valuables are someone's ""kitoum"" adds a sense of responsibility to the way they are handled, reminding the recipient that he is only a steward of somebody else's possession. (The ownership of a particular valuable is, however, often not known.) Kula valuables can be exchanged as ""kitoum"" in a direct exchange between two partners, thus fully transferring the rights of ownership. The right of participation in Kula exchange is not automatic; one has to ""buy"" one's way into it through participating"
"and rings (in the old days they were also sewn onto clothes). The bride's family gives them to the groom in exchange for 50 to 100 carabao (water buffalo) or horses and some gold. The bride, however, wears the beads and passes them on to her daughter. In Timor, in 1965, a 12-inch long strand of mutisalah equaled the price of a water buffalo. In the 1970s, some mutisalah which originated from sites in Sumatra were being exchanged for precious textiles by Haji Baharudin who then sold the textiles to collectors in Japan and the US. In Sumba, mutiraja beads"
"of dangerous ocean to give away what appear to be worthless trinkets?"" (He could have asked this as well about the Dutch giving trinkets to the aboriginals of Manhattan Island). Malinowski carefully traced the network of exchanges of bracelets and necklaces across the Trobriand Islands, and established that they were part of a system of exchange (the Kula ring). He stated that this exchange system was clearly linked to political authority. In the 1920s and later, Malinowski's study became the subject of debate with the French anthropologist, Marcel Mauss, author of ""The Gift"" (""Essai sur le don,"" 1925). Malinowski emphasised"
"Similar with ornaments around the region, taiganja are a symbol of status and reserved for the royal family or chiefs. They are hung from glass bead necklaces, or on the suit, or sometimes on the cap of a nobleman, as a king of amulet. They are ornaments of both men and women. In the Kulawi tribe of Central Sulawesi, taiganja is critical in the practice of gift exchanges at weddings or during communal feasts at funerals. The taiganja also works as a kind of protective amulet to keep evil at bay. Taiganja Taiganja are precious metal ornaments found in Central"
"the person or group they are making the gift to - and hence plays an important part in cementing good relations, and is taken very seriously, with misunderstanding having the potential to give offence. This traditional practice of koha remains active today in New Zealand in Māori contexts. At hui, any money given helps with the actual costs associated with the meeting, and for the benefit of non-Māori unfamiliar with the custom some marae may suggest a particular amount to be given as koha, but it remains a freely given gift rather than a charge for services or a facilities."
"on the back what the money can be used for in developing countries. Trick-or-treating Trick-or-treating has become a Halloween ritual custom for children and adults in many countries. The term """"trick-or-treat"""", most commonly associated with the USA, but with its cultural origins in the Celtic regions of Europe, is now found in use all over the world since the spread and establishment of now popular cultural activities, previously by means of colonialism and the spread of Christianity. Typically, children in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase ""Trick or treat"". The ""treat"" is usually some"
"In wider current New Zealand society the term has a broader meaning more closely associated with the English term donation. Participants at an event may be asked for ""koha"", often in the form of a request for ""a gold coin donation"" (i.e., $1 or $2). In New Zealand English it is becoming more frequent to refer to the small gifts, or more commonly food such as biscuits, desserts or cakes, which are presented when visiting friends or family as koha. Such gifts are common custom among New Zealanders, especially in rural areas. This custom, if not rooted in Māori custom"