Potlatch

A potlatch is a ceremony among certain First Nations peoples on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and Canadian state of British Columbia such as the Haida, Tlingit, Salish and Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'kawakw). The potlatch takes the form of a ceremonial feast traditionally featuring seal meat or salmon. In it, hierarchical relations between groups were observed and reinforced through the exchange of gifts and other ceremonies. The potlatch is an example of a gift economy, whereby the host demonstrates their wealth and prominence through giving away their possessions and thus prompt participans to reciprocate when they hold their own potlatch. Although this sort exchange is widely practiced across the planet (consider, for example, the Western practice of buying one's friend's rounds of drinks), Potlatch is the example of this phenomena that is most widely known to the public. Originally the potlatch was held to celebrate events in the life cycle of the host family such as the birth of a child. However, the influx of manufactured goods such as blankets and pieces of copper into the Pacific Northwest caused inflation in the Potlatch in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some groups, such as the Kwakiutl, used the potlatch as an arena in which highly competitive contests of status took place. In some cases, goods were actually destroyed after being received. Potlatch was made illegal in Canada and the United States in the late nineteenth century, when the government considered such displays 'irrational' and a waste of valuable resources that would be better use to help Native North Americans advance and develop. As understanding of the true nature of the Potlatch grew it was made legal once again - in 1934 in the United States and 1954 in Canada. Today First Nations people continue to hold potlatches and they are once again an important part of community life. Gifts today include cash, blankets, tupperware, glasses, and cups. Potlatch has fascinated Westerners for many years. Thorstein Veblen's use of the ceremony in his book Theory of the Leisure Class made potlatch a symbol of 'conspicuous consumption'. Other authors such as Georges Bataille were struck by what they saw as the archaic, communal nature of the potlatch's operation - it is for this reason that the Lettrist International named their review after the Potlatch in the 1950s. Potlatch has also become a model, albeit a sometimes poorly understood one, for the open source software movement and a variety of social movements.\n \n

Further reading

• Marcel Mauss: The Gift (1925) [1]

External Links

• Potlatch entry from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians\n*On-line exhibition on potlatch from the Peabody Museum

Category:Canadian history