affirming status, establishing and maintaining alliances, as well as
ensuring the even distribution of food and goods. Agnes Alfred, an
Indian from Albert Bay, explained the potlatch this way, “When one’s
heart is glad, he gives away gifts.... The potlatch was given to us to
be our way of expressing joy.”PASSAGE 2The inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands, an archipelago off the coast
of Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, are united by a ceremo-
nial trading system called the kula ring. Kula traders sail to neighbor-
ing islands in large ocean-going canoes to offer either shell necklaces
or shell armbands. The necklaces, made of red shells called bagi,travel
around the trading ring clockwise, and the armbands, made of white
shells called mwali,travel counterclockwise.
Each man in the kula ring has two kula trading partners—one part-
ner to whom he gives a necklace for an armband of equal value,
although the exchanges are made on separate occasions, and one part-
ner with whom he makes the reverse exchange. Each partner has one
other partner with whom he trades, thus linking all the men around
the kula ring. For example, if A trades with B and C, B trades with A
and D, and C trades with A and E, and so on. A man may have only
met his own specific kula partners, but he will know by reputation all
the men in his kula ring. It can take anywhere from two to ten years
for a particular object to complete a journey around the ring. The
more times an object has made the trip around the ring the more value
it accrues. Particularly beautiful necklaces and armbands are also
prized. Some famous kula objects are known by special names and
through elaborate stories. Objects also gain fame through ownership
by powerful men, and, likewise, men can gain status by possessing par-
ticularly prized kula objects.
The exchange of these ceremonial items, which often accompanies
trade in more mundane wares, is enacted with a host of ritual activi-
ties. The visitors, who travel to receive kula from their hosts, are seen
as aggressors. They are met with ritual hostility and must charm their
hosts in order to receive the necklaces or armbands. The visitors take
care to make themselves beautiful, because beauty conveys strength
and protects them from danger. The hosts, who are the “victims” of
their visitors’ charm and beauty, give the prized objects because they
know that the next time it will be their turn to be the aggressor. Each
man hopes that his charm and beauty will compel his trading partner
to give him the most valuable kula object.(35)
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