POTLATCH

The Kwakwaka'wakw continue the practice of potlatch. Illustrated here is Wawadit'la in Thunderbird Park, Victoria, BC, (aka Mungo Martin House) a Kwakwaka'wakw "big house" built by Chief Mungo Martin in 1953. Very wealthy, that is, prominent, hosts would have a longhouse specifically for potlatching and for housing guests.

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 x^wsalik^w, from x^wɐš, "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]

Traditional historical

Originally the potlatch was held to commemorate an important event such as the death of a high-status person, expanded to celebrate events in the life cycle of the host family such as the birth of a child. Social rank was hierarchical, ranks were limited, and acquistion of a rank had to publicly witnessed for validation. Pre-contact gifts would further include storable food (oolachan [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 Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), used the potlatch as an arena in which highly competitive contests of status took place. In some (relatively 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 1885 and the United States in the late nineteenth century, in a complex Native social dynamic yet largely at the urging of missionaries and government agents who considered it "a worse than useless custom"^[5] that was seen as wasteful, unproductive, and contrary to the work ethic and values of the dominant society of Canada and the United States. Despite the ban, potlatching continued clandestinely (and increasingly cleverly) for decades. Numerous 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, the United States in 1934 and Canada in 1951.

The potlatch is a very famous cultural practice 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. Potlatching has become one of Native America's greatest assets in helping out people less fortunate, and in including those who may not get to become a full member of a tribe or organization, allowing them to experience this classical tradition.

Potlatching served a crucial role in traditional (pre-contact) and in modern Native culture. With far-reaching extended-family social and trading networks, and with famously variable resources like fisheries, far-ranging potlatching could address localized famine. Contributions to potlatching over many years could assure a floor of support as participants became elders in retirement that was thus quite distinct from simple charity. (Most families, unable to afford actual hosting, contribute to a potlatch of a related host.) Consequently the modern "iron hand" upon potlatching was an effective tearing of interwoven Native traditions; the subtle resistance past the turn of the century and modern renaissance in the 20th century were both a measure of resiliancy and vitality of Native culture into the present.

In modern times

Today people continue to hold potlatches and they are once again an important part of community life, particularly in more remote or active communities. 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 food or money, but may include blankets, clothing, dishes, household utensils, art, and nearly anything else which has some obvious value.

The potlatch has fascinated and has 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. In these, a gift economy existed with the social expectation that all deals exchanges were on equal terms. Potlatching in this situation became essentially the equivalent of ripping someone off in a standard economy, and seen as unfair to the recipient.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} The potlatch tradition has begun to be observed by various religious groups. The Web Path Center in Clyde, New York has celebrated a form of this tradition for many years and The Universal Terran Church has incorporated it into their All Faiths Day celebration for the purpose of promoting selfless giving between practitioners of various faiths. Girl Scouts in the United States also hold a derivation of potlatch ceremonies. The gift economy of the Burning Man Festival in Nevada can also be interpreted as a type of potlatch.

"Potlatch" and "potluck"

The English term "potluck" is erroneously said to derive from "potlatch" due to its use in the American term "potluck dinner"; it is actually a portmanteau of "pot"+"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]^[6]

n : whatever happens to be available especially when offered to an unexpected guest or when brought by guests and shared by all; "having arrived unannounced we had to take potluck"; "a potluck supper".^[7]

Consequently, application of the two terms is frequently confused outside of Native contexts.

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

Notes and references

1. ^ ^a b Cole & Chaikin
2. ^ (1) Bates, Hess, & Hilbert pp. xii–xiv, 164, 340
   (2) See International Phonetic Alphabet for pronunciation, or Duwamish (tribe) #footnote for a brief summary.
3. ^ (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.
4. ^ (1) Boyd (2) Cole & Chaikin
5. ^ Historical quote in Cole & Chaikin
6. ^ The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
7. ^ WordNet (r) 2.0

Bibliography

• Bates, Dawn; Hess, Thom; Hilbert, Vi; map by Dassow, Laura (1994). Bates, Dawn, ed. Lushootseed dictionary. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-97323-4 (alk. paper). Retrieved on 2006-06-06.
  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, 1774-1874. Seattle and Vancouver: University of Washington Press and University of British Columbia Press. ISBN 0295978376 (alk. paper), ISBN 0774807555. Retrieved on 2006-05-21.
• Cole, Douglas and Chaikin, Ira (1990). An iron hand upon the people: the law against the potlatch on the Northwest coast. Vancouver and Seatttle: Douglas & McIntyre and University of Washington Press. ISBN 0295970502 (acid-free paper). Retrieved on not recorded and 2006-05-21.
• Kan, Sergei. (1993). "Symbolic Immortality: The Tlingit potlatch of the nineteenth century". Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. ISBN ^{[citation needed]}. Retrieved on not recorded.
• 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 series or journal[?]. 37(1): 41-75. Smithsonian Books[?]^{[citation needed]}. ISBN ^{[citation needed]} Retrieved on not recorded.
  Tentative identification per Yale University "Anthro 500 Session Schedule and Readings Syllabus: Fall Term, 2002"
  University of Chicago Department of Anthropology, Faculty and Staff: Joseph P. Masco
  Reference searched 21 August 2006.
• Mauss, Marcel ([1925] 1990). The Gift. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0393306984. Retrieved on not recorded.
  Translation of Essai sur le don.
  Author bio "Mauss, Marcel", Anthropology Biography Web, EMuseum Minnesota State University, Mankato.
  Reference searched 21 August 2006.

Further reading

• "Potlatch" from Hoxie, Frederick E., ed. (1996). Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395669219.
• Potlatch An exhibition from the Peabody Museum, Harvard University.
• Potlatch Then and Now A website by the BC Heritage Websites Program on potlatch from the U'mista Cultural Society of the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nation.
• 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.