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A potlatch is a ceremony among certain First Nations peoples on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and Canadian province 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 participants 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 friends rounds of drinks), Potlatch is the example of this phenomenon 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 InternationalThe Lettrist International LI was the first breakaway group from Isidore Isou's Lettrist Movement ( LM). They would be followed in turn by the Ultra-Lettrists. The LI was formed after the 'left-wing' of the LM disrupted a Charlie Chaplin press conference named their review after the Potlatch in the 1950sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s Years: 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb.. Potlatch has also become a model, albeit a sometimes poorly understood one, for the open sourceNote: "open source" in the intelligence community simply means "any information accessible to the public, possibly after paying a fee". This article is about open source software, a more common meaning for the term "open source". Open source or open sourc software movement and a variety of social movements.
1 Further reading
- Marcel MaussMarcel Mauss ( 1872- 1950) was a French sociologist best known his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle, Emile Durkheim and the Annee Sociologique. Mauss was born in Epinal to a Jewish family, and studied philosophy at Bordeaux, whe: The Gift (1925) [1]
2 External links
Canadian history
Native American culture
