Cargo Cults and Systems of Exchange in Melanesia

Brunton, Ron

doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1971.tb01076.x

Cited by 13 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Recipients are therefore often left disappointed with what they received. The same kinds of dissatisfactions are frequently cited in the case of ceremonial displays (see O'Hanlon ), ‘cargo cults’ (see Brunton ), and most notably in direct dealings with many a waitman (lit. ‘white‐man’) (see Bashkow ).…”

Section: Simon's Skillsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Pocket calculator: a humdrum ‘obviator’ in Papua New Guinea?

Pickles

2013

Royal Anthropological Inst

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This article examines the significance of pockets for controlling money in Highland Papua New Guinea. Contextualizing elaborate ‘systems’ for compartmentalizing monies in separate pockets, I draw upon the connection Highlanders make between transaction and skin. Pockets, I argue, offer opportunities to hide one's wealth reserves while gifting, keeping intentions opaque and leaving interlocutors guessing at the meaning of donors' speech, and forcing recipients to perceive their gift as ample. The article suggests that expectations are deliberately conventionalized in order to be exceeded, drawing parallels with Roy Wagner's notion of obviation. After characterizing Gorokan pockets and their gifting ‘logic’, I analyse how pocket‐users are themselves conventionalized as forthright or selfish in local discourse, based upon the pockets they display and where their clothes come from. Giving people clothing that includes pockets is therefore a way to regain control over their capacity to reveal wealth from their pockets.

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Section: Simon's Skillsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Pocket calculator: a humdrum ‘obviator’ in Papua New Guinea?

Pickles

2013

Royal Anthropological Inst

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“…In The Great Transformation (Polanyi 2001) and subsequently in a series of essays and edited volumes, Polanyi and his students argued that the market mentality and the assumption of pan-human economic rationalism that guided most neo-classical, modernist, and formalist thought was an aberration, a recent phenomenon that would become obsolete with the social transformation of capitalism in the 20th century (Dalton 1975;Polanyi 1963Polanyi , 1966Polanyi et al 1957). They argued that social norms and requirements determine the distribution of goods in archaic and primitive economies and these economies are ''embedded'' in social process (Bohannon and Dalton 1962;Brunton 1971;Dalton 1969;Rotstein 1972). They distinguished between contemporary markets economies (in which economic decision-making guides most sociopolitical process) and archaic economies, including reciprocity, redistribution, and administered trade, in which the economy is subordinated to top-down sociopolitical decision-making and motivations (Carrasco 1978;Dalton 1969Dalton , 1977La Lone 1982;Ratnagar 1981).…”

Section: The Social Embedding Of Trade/exchangementioning

confidence: 98%

The Archaeology of Trading Systems, Part 1: Towards a New Trade Synthesis

2008

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After almost three centuries of investigations into the question of what it means to be human and the historical processes of becoming human, archaeologists have amassed a huge volume of data on prehistoric human interactions. One of the largest data sets available is on the global distribution and exchange of materials and commodities. What still remains insufficiently understood is the precise nature of these interactions and their role in shaping the diverse cultures that make up the human family as we know it. A plethora of theoretical models combined with a multitude of methodological approaches exist to explain one important aspect of human interaction-trade-and its role and place in shaping humanity. We argue that trade parallels political, religious, and social processes as one of the most significant factors to have affected our evolution. Here we review published literature on archaeological approaches to trade, including the primitivist-modernist and substantivist-formalist-Marxist debates. We also discuss economic, historical, and ethnographic research that directly addresses the role of traders and trade in both past and contemporary societies. In keeping with the complexities of interaction between trade and other aspects of human behavior, we suggest moving away from the either/or perspective or strong identification with any particular paradigm and suggest a return to the middle through a combinational approach to the study of trade in past societies.

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An Interpretation of a Cargo Cult*

Stent¹

1977

Oceania

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Cargo Cults and Systems of Exchange in Melanesia

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

Pocket calculator: a humdrum ‘obviator’ in Papua New Guinea?

Pocket calculator: a humdrum ‘obviator’ in Papua New Guinea?

The Archaeology of Trading Systems, Part 1: Towards a New Trade Synthesis

An Interpretation of a Cargo Cult*

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