Difference between revisions of "Kula ring" - New World Encyclopedia
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'''Kula''', also known as the '''Kula exchange''' or '''Kula ring''', is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the [[Milne Bay Province]] of [[Papua New Guinea]]. It involves a complex system of visits and exchanges and was first described in the west by [[Anthropologist]] [[Bronislaw Malinowski ]]in 1922. The objects exchanged are not particularly valuable in themselves, but serve to help forge various social connections which are depended upon at various times throughout an individual's life. | '''Kula''', also known as the '''Kula exchange''' or '''Kula ring''', is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the [[Milne Bay Province]] of [[Papua New Guinea]]. It involves a complex system of visits and exchanges and was first described in the west by [[Anthropologist]] [[Bronislaw Malinowski ]]in 1922. The objects exchanged are not particularly valuable in themselves, but serve to help forge various social connections which are depended upon at various times throughout an individual's life. | ||
| − | ==The | + | ==The Gift== |
| − | The Kula ring spans at least 18 island communities of the Massim archipelago, including the [[Trobriand Islands]] and involves thousands of individuals. Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by canoe in | + | The Kula ring spans at least 18 island communities of the Massim archipelago, including the [[Trobriand Islands]] and involves thousands of individuals. Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by a ceremonial canoe used for this occaision and are bigger and much more decorated than the normal fishing canoes. The Kula trading period ushers in a period of trade of various commodities, feasts, catching up on the news, and various social events. There is an opening gift and a closing gift. These Kula gifts are not in themselves remarkably valuable and are of two types. One consist of shell-disc necklaces (''veigun'' or soulava) that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction) and the other are shell armbands (''mwali'') that are traded in the southern direction (circling counter-clockwise). Mwali was given with the right hand, the Soulava given with the left hand, first between villages then from island to island. If the opening gift was an armshell, then the closing gift must be a necklace and vice versa. These are traded purely for purposes of enhancing mutual trust relationships, securing trade and enhancing one's social status and prestige. |
| − | + | Although they are not the height of art, each object carries a history of its own. The word Kula is derived from bita kuli and a verb, meaning both to form in the likeness or image of another and to be formed as a likeness or image of the other. This is the root of the work Malinowski did concerning reciprocity. According to the Muyuw, a good Kula relationship should be "like a marriage". Similarly, the saying around Papua is: "once in Kula, always in Kula" (Damon, 1980: 282). | |
| + | “It is a motion, an action of giving and taking between people - two people (partners) to begin with. This action results in the growth of participants”1. Kula is not just giving and receiving but an experience encountered by two personalities, be they individuals or entire communities. It is the simple human experience of growth and growing as an individual or a community engaged in giving and receiving. | ||
| − | 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 less than a dozen ([[Malinowski]], 1920:98). Even though the vast majority of items that Kula participants have at any given time are not theirs and will be passed on, Damon (1980:281) notes that e.g. amongst the Muyuw all Kula objects are someone's ''kitoum'', meaning they are owned by that person (or by a group). The person owning a valuable as ''kitoum'' has full rights of ownership over it: he can keep it, sell it or even destroy it. The Kula valuable or an equivalent item must be returned to the person who owns it as ''kitoum''. The most important Muyuw men for example own between three to 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. | + | Carefully prescribed customs and traditions surround the ceremonies that accompany the exchanges which establish strong, ideally life-long relationships between the exchange parties (''karayta'u'', "partners").The terms of participation varies from region to region. Whereas on the [[Trobriand Islands]] the exchange is monopolised by the chiefs, in Dobu all men can participate. Historically limited to male trading partners, contemporarily some women participate in some areas.The act of giving, as [[Marcel Mauss]] wrote in [["the Gift"]], 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. Such a partnership involves strong mutual obligations such as hospitality, protection and assistance. |
| + | |||
| + | Kula is a source of stability in the personal and social well-being of the islanders. The Kula Circle has always been associated with making contact with far off neighbours. It has been suggested that the trade is one way to avoid inbreeding, as many romances form with far away partners during the trading times. The men are away and must be strong and fit, and the women must find harmony and ways to cooporate while they are gone. | ||
| + | |||
| + | "When attention is directed onto an object, it remains in the object. Throughout the mystery of Kula, trading the mwali and soulava became ‘living personalities’ with definite cultural identities." | ||
| + | - John Kasaipwalova | ||
| + | The Kula tradition is carried by word of mouth and is symbolised by the objects Soulava and Mwali, or bagi as they are known in different parts of Papua New Guinea. “It is a motion, an action of giving and taking between people - two people (partners) to begin with. This action results in the growth of participants”1. Kula is not just giving and receiving but an experience encountered by two personalities, be they individuals or entire communities. It is the simple human experience of growth and growing as an individual or a community engaged in giving and receiving. | ||
| + | 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 less than a dozen ([[Malinowski]], 1920:98). | ||
| + | |||
| + | Even though the vast majority of items that Kula participants have at any given time are not theirs and will be passed on, Damon (1980:281) notes that e.g. amongst the Muyuw all Kula objects are someone's ''kitoum'', meaning they are owned by that person (or by a group). The person owning a valuable as ''kitoum'' has full rights of ownership over it: he can keep it, sell it or even destroy it. The Kula valuable or an equivalent item must be returned to the person who owns it as ''kitoum''. The most important Muyuw men for example own between three to 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. | ||
==Social Networks== | ==Social Networks== | ||
| Line 27: | Line 37: | ||
== References == | == References == | ||
| + | 1 Malnic. J, with Kasaipwalova.J (1998), KULA: Myth and Magic of the Trobriand Islands, Cowrie Books,Halstead Press, NSW | ||
| + | Microsoft Encartar 2000 | ||
* {{cite web|accessdate=March 14|accessyear=2005| | * {{cite web|accessdate=March 14|accessyear=2005| | ||
url=http://www.ulb.ac.be/soco/apft/GENERAL/PUBLICAT/RAPPORTS/YOUNG.HTM| | url=http://www.ulb.ac.be/soco/apft/GENERAL/PUBLICAT/RAPPORTS/YOUNG.HTM| | ||
| Line 69: | Line 81: | ||
id=}} | id=}} | ||
| − | * {{ | + | * {{cite web|accessdate=March 14|accessyear=2007| |
| − | url=http://www.ms-starship.com/sciencenew/kula.htm}} | + | url=http://www.ms-starship.com/sciencenew/kula.htm|title=Kula}} |
{{Credit1|Kula_ring|79053707|}} | {{Credit1|Kula_ring|79053707|}} | ||
Revision as of 07:31, 14 March 2007
Kula, also known as the Kula exchange or Kula ring, is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. It involves a complex system of visits and exchanges and was first described in the west by Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski in 1922. The objects exchanged are not particularly valuable in themselves, but serve to help forge various social connections which are depended upon at various times throughout an individual's life.
The Gift
The Kula ring spans at least 18 island communities of the Massim archipelago, including the Trobriand Islands and involves thousands of individuals. Participants travel at times hundreds of miles by a ceremonial canoe used for this occaision and are bigger and much more decorated than the normal fishing canoes. The Kula trading period ushers in a period of trade of various commodities, feasts, catching up on the news, and various social events. There is an opening gift and a closing gift. These Kula gifts are not in themselves remarkably valuable and are of two types. One consist of shell-disc necklaces (veigun or soulava) that are traded to the north (circling the ring in clockwise direction) and the other are shell armbands (mwali) that are traded in the southern direction (circling counter-clockwise). Mwali was given with the right hand, the Soulava given with the left hand, first between villages then from island to island. If the opening gift was an armshell, then the closing gift must be a necklace and vice versa. These are traded purely for purposes of enhancing mutual trust relationships, securing trade and enhancing one's social status and prestige.
Although they are not the height of art, each object carries a history of its own. The word Kula is derived from bita kuli and a verb, meaning both to form in the likeness or image of another and to be formed as a likeness or image of the other. This is the root of the work Malinowski did concerning reciprocity. According to the Muyuw, a good Kula relationship should be "like a marriage". Similarly, the saying around Papua is: "once in Kula, always in Kula" (Damon, 1980: 282). “It is a motion, an action of giving and taking between people - two people (partners) to begin with. This action results in the growth of participants”1. Kula is not just giving and receiving but an experience encountered by two personalities, be they individuals or entire communities. It is the simple human experience of growth and growing as an individual or a community engaged in giving and receiving.
Carefully prescribed customs and traditions surround the ceremonies that accompany the exchanges which establish strong, ideally life-long relationships between the exchange parties (karayta'u, "partners").The terms of participation varies from region to region. Whereas on the Trobriand Islands the exchange is monopolised by the chiefs, in Dobu all men can participate. Historically limited to male trading partners, contemporarily some women participate in some areas.The act of giving, as Marcel Mauss wrote in "the Gift", 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. Such a partnership involves strong mutual obligations such as hospitality, protection and assistance.
Kula is a source of stability in the personal and social well-being of the islanders. The Kula Circle has always been associated with making contact with far off neighbours. It has been suggested that the trade is one way to avoid inbreeding, as many romances form with far away partners during the trading times. The men are away and must be strong and fit, and the women must find harmony and ways to cooporate while they are gone.
"When attention is directed onto an object, it remains in the object. Throughout the mystery of Kula, trading the mwali and soulava became ‘living personalities’ with definite cultural identities." - John Kasaipwalova The Kula tradition is carried by word of mouth and is symbolised by the objects Soulava and Mwali, or bagi as they are known in different parts of Papua New Guinea. “It is a motion, an action of giving and taking between people - two people (partners) to begin with. This action results in the growth of participants”1. Kula is not just giving and receiving but an experience encountered by two personalities, be they individuals or entire communities. It is the simple human experience of growth and growing as an individual or a community engaged in giving and receiving. 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 less than a dozen (Malinowski, 1920:98).
Even though the vast majority of items that Kula participants have at any given time are not theirs and will be passed on, Damon (1980:281) notes that e.g. amongst the Muyuw all Kula objects are someone's kitoum, meaning they are owned by that person (or by a group). The person owning a valuable as kitoum has full rights of ownership over it: he can keep it, sell it or even destroy it. The Kula valuable or an equivalent item must be returned to the person who owns it as kitoum. The most important Muyuw men for example own between three to 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.
Social Networks
The right of participation in Kula exchange is not automatic. One has to "buy" one's way into it through participating in various lower spheres of exchange (Damon, 1980:278). The relationship giver-receiver is always asymmetrical: the former are higher in status. Also, Kula valuables are ranked according to value and age and so 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 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. Malinowski, 1920:100).
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 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 only way to get ahead in Kula is to lie, commenting that deceit frequently causes Kula relationships to fall apart (Damon, 1980:278). Similarly, ::Malinowski:: wrote of "many squabbles, deep resentments and even feuds over real or imaginary grievances in the Kula exchange" (1920:100).
The Kula ring is a classical example for Marcel Mauss' distinction between gift and commodity exchange. Melanesians carefully distinguish gift exchange (Kula) from market exchange in the form of barter (gimwali). Both reflect different underlying value systems and cultural customs. The Kula, as Mauss wrote, is not supposed to be conducted like gimwali (barter). The former involves a solemn exchange ceremony, a "display of greatness" where the concepts of honour and nobility are central; the latter, often done as part of Kula exchange journeys, involves hard bargaining and purely serves economic purposes (1990:22-23). 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 (except by the one who owns them as kitoum).
Similar Practices
Other cultures practice similar forms of gift exchange:
- Potlatch is a similar practice among some Native American and First Nations peoples of west coast North America
- Koha, a similar practice among the Māori of New Zealand
- Moka, a similar practice in the Mt. Hagen area of Papua New Guinea
- Sepik Coast exchange, a similar practice in the Sepic Coast of Papua New Guinea
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
1 Malnic. J, with Kasaipwalova.J (1998), KULA: Myth and Magic of the Trobriand Islands, Cowrie Books,Halstead Press, NSW Microsoft Encartar 2000
- Kula in Woodlark. Fieldwork report: Logging or conservation on Woodlark (Muyuw) island, by Michael Young, Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. Retrieved March 14, 2005.
- Kula: the standard model. Notes for reading Bronislaw Malinowski, Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922). Retrieved March 14, 2005.
- Jerry Leach and Edmund Leach (1983). The Kula: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange. Cambridge University Press, New York.
- Damon, F. H. (1980). The Kula and Generalised Exchange: Considering some Unconsidered Aspects of the Elementary Structures of Kinship. Man (new series) 15: 267-292.
- Malinowski, B. (1920). Kula; the Circulating Exchange of Valuables in the Archipelagoes of Eastern New Guinea. Man 20: 97-105.
- Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.
- Mauss, M. (1990). The Gift: forms and functions of exchange in archaic societies. London: Routledge.
- Kula. Retrieved March 14, 2007.
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