Potlatch
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A potlatch is a highly complex event or ceremony among certain Indigenous peoples in North America, including nations on the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia that has been practiced for thousands of years. Such peoples included the Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw and the various Salishan-speaking peoples. The potlatch takes the form of governance, economy, social status and continuing spiritual practices. A potlatch, usually involving ceremony, includes celebration of births, rites of passages, weddings, funerals and honoring of the deceased. Through political, economic and social exchange, it is a vital part of these Indigenous people's culture. Although protocol differs among the Indigenous nations, the potlatch could involve a feast, with music, dance, theatricality and spiritual ceremonies. Within it, hierarchical relations within and between clans, villages, and nations, are observed and reinforced through the distribution of wealth, dance performances, and other ceremonies. Status of families are raised by those who do not have the most resources, but distribute the resources. The host demonstrates their wealth and prominence through giving away the resources gathered for the event, which in turn prominent participants reciprocate when they hold their own potlatches. The most sacred ceremonies are usually observed in the winter.
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[edit] Overview
The name is derived from Chinook Jargon; every practicing Pacific Northwest language group has a variation. The Chinook Jargon word is a homonym having nothing to do with "pot" or "latch".[1] Coast Salish Lushootseed potlatching is xwsalikw, from xwɐš, "throw, broadcast, distribute goods", related to pús(u), "throw through the air, throw at".[2] The casting or throwing of suitable gifts is a part of a potlatch ceremony.
- n. [Chinook potlatch, pahtlatch, fr.Nootka pahchilt, pachalt, a gift.]
- 1. Among the Kwakiutl, Chimmesyan, and other Indians of the northwestern coast of North America, a ceremonial distribution by a man of gifts to his own and neighboring tribesmen, often, formerly, to his own impoverishment. Feasting, dancing, and public ceremonies accompany it.
- 2. Hence, a feast given to a large number of persons, often accompanied by gifts. [Colloq., Northwestern America]
- [Webster 1913 Suppl.][3]
[edit] Modern History
Before the arrival of the Europeans, gifts included storable food (oolichan [candle fish] oil or dried food), canoes, and slaves among the very wealthy, but otherwise not income-generating assets such as resource rights. The influx of manufactured trade goods such as blankets and sheet copper into the Pacific Northwest caused inflation in the potlatch in the late eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries. Some groups, such as the Kwakwaka'wakw, used the potlatch as an arena in which highly competitive contests of status took place. In rare cases, goods were actually destroyed after being received. The catastrophic mortalities due to introduced diseases laid many inherited ranks vacant or open to remote or dubious claim—providing they could be validated—with a suitable potlatch.[4]
Potlatching was made illegal in Canada in 1884[5] 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"[6] that was seen as wasteful, unproductive and injurious to the practitioners. The church also targeted the potlatch system at what appeared to be "demonic" and "satanic". Despite the ban, potlatching continued clandestinely for decades. Numerous 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. As the potlatch became less of an issue in the twentieth century, the ban was dropped from the books, in the United States in 1934 and in Canada in 1951.
The potlatch is a cultural practice much studied by ethnographers. "Potlatch is a festive event within a regional exchange system among tribes of the North pacific Coast of North America, including the Salish and Kwakiutl of Washington and British Columbia."[citation needed] Sponsors of a potlatch give away many useful items such as food, blankets, worked ornamental mediums of exchange called "coppers", and many other various items. In return, they earned prestige. To give a potlatch enhanced one’s reputation and validated social rank, the rank and requisite potlatch being proportional, both for the host and for the recipients by the gifts exchanged. Prestige increased with the lavishness of the potlatch, the value of the goods given away in it.
The potlatch has fascinated and perhaps been misunderstood by Westerners for many years.[1] 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 anarchic, 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. Kim Stanley Robinson adopted the term in his Mars trilogy.
[edit] "Potlatch" and "potluck"
The English term "potluck" is erroneously thought to be derived from the word "potlatch" due to its use in the American term "potluck dinner"; it is actually a compound of "pot" and "luck".
- Potluck: Whatever may chance to be in the pot, or may be provided for a meal.
{To take potluck}, to take what food may chance to be provided. [1913 Webster][7]
[edit] See also
- Koha, a related concept among the Māori
- Kula ring, a similar concept in the Trobriand Islands (Oceania)
- Moka, another similar concept in Papua New Guinea
- Sepik Coast exchange, yet another similar concept in Papua New Guinea
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b Cole & Chaikin
- ^ (1) Bates, Hess, & Hilbert pp. xii–xiv, 164, 340
(2) See International Phonetic Alphabet for pronunciation, or Duwamish (tribe) #footnote for a brief summary. - ^ (1) The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
(2) "[O]ften, formerly, to his own impoverishment": At the time of writing the 1913 Webster, the economics of the potlatch in context were widely misunderstood in non-Native society. - ^ (1) Boyd (2) Cole & Chaikin
- ^ An Act further to amend "The Indian Act, 1880," S.C. 1884 (47 Vict.), c. 27, s. 3.
- ^ Historical quote in Cole & Chaikin
- ^ The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
[edit] Sources
- Bates, Dawn; Hess, Thom; Hilbert, Vi; map by Dassow, Laura (1994). in Bates, Dawn, ed.: Lushootseed dictionary. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. ISBN (alk. paper). Retrieved on June 6, 2006.
Completely reformatted, greatly revised and expanded update of Hess, Thom, Dictionary of Puget Salish (University of Washington Press, 1976). - Boyd, Robert (1999). The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians,. Seattle and Vancouver: University of Washington Press and University of British Columbia Press. ISBN (alk. paper), ISBN. Retrieved on May 21, 2006.
- Mauss, Marcel ([1925] 1990). The Gift. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN. Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
Translation of Essai sur le don.
Author bio "Mauss, Marcel", Anthropology Biography Web, EMuseum Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Reference searched 21 August 2006.
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] External links
- Potlatch An exhibition from the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
- Money An analysis of Potlatch and modern versions of the same from a pyschohistorical perspective. Not neutral point of view, but does provide references.
- University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Oliver S. Van Olinda Photographs A collection of 420 photographs depicting life on Vashon Island, Whidbey Island, Seattle and other communities around Puget Sound, Washington, from the 1880s through the 1930s. This collection provides a glimpse of early pioneer activities, industries and occupations, recreation, street scenes, ferries and boat traffic at the turn of the century. Also included are a few photographs of Native American activities such as documentation of a potlatch on Whidbey Island.
