A potlatch is a ceremony among certain Native American/First Nations peoples on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia such as the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw). 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 participants to reciprocate when they hold their own potlatch. Although this sort of exchange is widely practiced across the planet (consider, for example, the Western practice of buying one's friends a round of drinks), the potlatch is the example of this phenomenon that is most widely known to the public. Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, Amerindians, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada that has widely replaced the use of the word Indian. It refers to the Indigenous peoples of North America located in what is now Canada, and their descendants, who are not Inuit or Métis. ... Darker red states are always part of the Pacific Northwest. ... Motto: Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendour without diminishment) Other Canadian provinces and territories Capital Victoria Largest city Vancouver Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo Premier Gordon Campbell (BC Liberal) Area 944,735 km² (5th) Land 925,186 km² Water 19,549 km² (2. ... Haida Haida Copper Shield The Haida are an indigenous people of the west coast of North America. ... A Tlingit totem pole in Ketchikan ca. ... Members of the Tsimshian tribe enjoying a tea party near Fort Simpson, British Columbia, c. ... The Coast Salish are a Salishan-speaking First Nations/Native American culture that inhabited an area centered in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and western Washington in the United States for several millennia up to the time of arrival of the Europeans in the 19th century. ... The Nuu-chah-nulth (pronounced New-cha-nulth)(also Nootka, Nutka, Aht, West Coast, T’aat’aaqsapa, Nuuchahnulth) people are indigenous peoples of Canada. ... Kwakwakawakw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Village Feast. ... A gift economy is an economic system in which the prevalent mode of exchange is for goods and services to be given without explicit agreement upon a quid pro quo. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A fruit stand at a market. ...

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. Kwakwakawakw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Potlatching was made illegal in Canada (1885) and the United States in the late nineteenth century, largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it "a worse than useless custom" that was wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to the work ethic and values of Canadian/American society. Despite the ban, potlatching continued clandestinely for years. Many First Nations petitioned the government to remove the law against a custom that they saw as no worse than Christmas, when friends were feasted and gifts were exchanged. The law was never reversed, but as opposition to the potlatch waned in the twentieth century it was dropped from the books in Canada (1951) and the United States (1934).

Today people continue to hold potlatches and they are once again an important part of community life. They may be performed for a variety of different reasons depending on the traditional practice of the tribe and regional variation. Many if not most potlatches are today associated with the commemoration of a deceased individual, usually an important person in the community. Other reasons include totem pole raisings, payments for significant services rendered, political activities, community celebrations, and tribal gatherings. Gifts today usually consist of money or food, but may include blankets, clothing, dishes, household utensils, art, and nearly anything else which has some obvious value. Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from great trees, typically Western Redcedar, by a number of Native American cultures along the Pacific northwest coast of North America. ...

The potlatch has fascinated Westerners for many years. Thorstein Veblen's use of the ceremony in his book Theory of the Leisure Class made potlatching 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 organization Lettrist International named their review after the potlatch in the 1950s. The potlatch has also become a model, albeit a sometimes poorly understood one, for the open source software movement and a variety of social movements. American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 - August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist. ... Conspicuous consumption is a term introduced by the American economist Thorstein Veblen, in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). ... George Bataille Georges Bataille (September 16, 1897 – July 9, 1962) was a French writer, anthropologist and philosopher, though he avoided the latter term himself. ... The Lettrist International (LI) was the first breakaway group from Isidore Isous Lettrist Movement (LM). ... // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...

See also

• Koha, a similar concept among the Maori
• Kula, a similar concept in New Guinea
• Moka, another similar concept in Papua New Guinea
• Sepik Coast exchange, yet another similar concept in Papua New Guinea

Koha is a New Zealand Maori custom which can be translated as gift, donation, or remuneration. ... Te Puni, Māori Chief Māori is the name of the indigenous people of New Zealand, and their language. ... Look up Kula in Wiktionary, the free dictionary This page is about the ceremonial exchange system Kula. ... The Moka is a system of exchange in the Mt. ... Sepik Coast exchange is the method of social networking and alliance in the Sepik Coast area of Papua New Guinea. ...

References

• Cole, Douglas and Ira Chaikin. An Iron Hand Upon The People: The Law Against The Potlatch on the Northwest Coast. Vancouver and Seattle: Douglas & McIntyre and University of Washington Press, 1990.
• Kan, Sergei (1993). Symbolic Immortality: The Tlingit potlatch of the nineteenth century. Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books.
• Mauss, Marcel (1925). The Gift [1]
• Masco, Joseph (1995). "It is a strict law that bids us dance": Cosmologies, colonialism, death and ritual authority in the Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch, 1849-1922. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 37(1): 41-75.

Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872- February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle, Émile Durkheim and the Annee Sociologique. ... The Gift is a short book by Marcel Mauss best known for being one of the earliest and most important studies of reciprocity and gift exchange. ...

External links

• Potlatch entry from the Encyclopedia of North American Indians
• On-line exhibition on potlatch from the Peabody Museum
• Potlatch Then and Now: a website on potlatch from a Kwakwaka'wakw cultural heritage organization