Lecture #4 - Ethnographic Fieldwork

00:34:51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKxoKQRWX9Q

Ringkasan

TLDRLa vidéo explore l'évolution de l'anthropologie à travers le travail de sociologues comme Malinowski et Boas, en se concentrant sur les études de cas dans le Pacifique Sud. Elle examine la pratique du Kula aux îles Trobriand, qui sert à maintenir des relations sociales plutôt qu'un échange économique fonctionnel. Les anthropologues observent que la richesse est définie par le nombre de relations sociales plutôt que par des objets matériels. Ensuite, le professeur discute de l'échange chez les Māori de Nouvelle-Zélande, où le don crée des obligations réciproques et renforce les liens sociaux, contrairement à la compétition économique observée dans les sociétés occidentales modernes.

Takeaways

  • 🗺️ Étude des anthropologistes précoces du Pacifique Sud
  • 👥 Importance de l'observation sur le terrain
  • ⚖️ Questions éthiques dans la recherche en anthropologie
  • 🔄 Échange Kula : maintenir les relations sociales
  • 💰 Richesse comme réseau de relations
  • 🎁 Échange de cadeaux chez les Māori : un acte total social
  • 📜 Malinowski et le fonctionnalisme anthropologique
  • 🏝️ Trobriand : des pratiques culturelles unique
  • 🤝 Obligations réciproques renforçant les liens
  • 🌍 Réflexions sur les systèmes économiques contemporains

Garis waktu

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Dans cette conférence, nous abordons des études de cas sur des anthropologues qui ont commencé à faire du travail de terrain, loin des approches ethnocentriques de leurs prédécesseurs. On examine la nécessité de comprendre les populations étudiées à travers l'expérience directe, plutôt que de se fier uniquement aux rapports coloniaux. Les préoccupations éthiques liées à l'intervention d'anthropologues dans des communautés autochtones sont discutées, mettant en question les biais inhérents à ces études.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:34:51

    L'anthropologue Malinowski est introduit avec son étude sur l'archipel des Trobriand, où il observe la pratique cérémonielle de l'échange des colliers et des bracelets dans le cadre d'un système connu sous le nom de

Peta Pikiran

Video Tanya Jawab

  • Qu'est-ce que le Kula ?

    Le Kula est un système d'échange ritualisé aux îles Trobriand, où des colliers et des bracelets circulent de manière perpétuelle entre les îles.

  • Qui est Bronislaw Malinowski ?

    Malinowski est un anthropologue qui a étudié les Trobriand et a développé des théories sur le fonctionnalisme en anthropologie.

  • Comment la richesse est-elle perçue aux îles Trobriand ?

    La richesse aux îles Trobriand est mesurée non pas par les objets échangés, mais par le nombre de partenaires commerciaux qu'une personne a.

  • Quel est le but de l'échange de cadeaux chez les Māori ?

    L'échange de cadeaux chez les Māori est un acte qui englobe les dimensions économiques, politiques, religieuses et juridiques.

  • Qu'est-ce que le potlatch ?

    Le potlatch est un système de fête et de don observé chez certaines cultures amérindiennes principalement dans le Pacifique Nord-Ouest.

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Teks
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Gulir Otomatis:
  • 00:00:01
    hello class this is the
  • 00:00:03
    fourth video lecture let's go ahead and
  • 00:00:06
    get to it
  • 00:00:08
    uh in this class in this lecture uh
  • 00:00:10
    we're just going to be looking at a
  • 00:00:11
    couple different case studies
  • 00:00:13
    of early anthropologists uh if you
  • 00:00:16
    remember
  • 00:00:16
    in the last lecture we were sort of
  • 00:00:19
    wrapped up by talking about
  • 00:00:21
    how anthropologists were beginning to
  • 00:00:23
    start to do field work and actually go
  • 00:00:25
    out and experience
  • 00:00:27
    and communicate with and talk learned
  • 00:00:29
    from
  • 00:00:30
    the populations were
  • 00:00:33
    theorizing about um and we talked about
  • 00:00:36
    some of the problems with
  • 00:00:38
    that you know highly ethnocentric
  • 00:00:41
    uh kind of anthropology um so yeah just
  • 00:00:45
    to have a quick look at the uh one
  • 00:00:47
    particular
  • 00:00:48
    region uh in the south pacific uh we're
  • 00:00:51
    gonna look at two
  • 00:00:52
    uh populations and two uh
  • 00:00:55
    anthropological works discussing uh
  • 00:00:58
    ideas regarding uh exchange
  • 00:01:01
    uh and how different communities engage
  • 00:01:03
    in
  • 00:01:04
    that so um here's just a couple
  • 00:01:08
    you know again uh old white european
  • 00:01:11
    dudes that are you know
  • 00:01:12
    pretty comfortable pretty wealthy um
  • 00:01:14
    these
  • 00:01:16
    people are often put up as some of the
  • 00:01:18
    first somewhat
  • 00:01:20
    respectable anthropologists
  • 00:01:24
    these are anthropologists that went and
  • 00:01:26
    did field work that
  • 00:01:28
    did go and learn the language
  • 00:01:32
    of the the people they were studying and
  • 00:01:34
    lived with them for
  • 00:01:35
    uh years at times and uh certainly some
  • 00:01:39
    of their efforts have been
  • 00:01:41
    applauded in that regard there is also
  • 00:01:44
    you know a lot you can say to critique
  • 00:01:47
    uh these earlier anthropologists like
  • 00:01:50
    franz boaz and malinowski as well
  • 00:01:54
    and i it's certainly there is an element
  • 00:01:56
    of ethnocentrism that lingers
  • 00:01:59
    in the works of these two but relatively
  • 00:02:01
    i guess it's a it's a step forward from
  • 00:02:04
    those writers from the late 1800s
  • 00:02:09
    uh more visibly ethnocentric and
  • 00:02:13
    and racist um so
  • 00:02:17
    one of the big
  • 00:02:20
    elements of doing anthropology is you
  • 00:02:23
    know
  • 00:02:24
    doing field work and going and
  • 00:02:27
    communicating and learning about another
  • 00:02:29
    population
  • 00:02:30
    observing them in time sometimes
  • 00:02:32
    participating
  • 00:02:33
    as an observer um at the end of this
  • 00:02:37
    session
  • 00:02:38
    in the in the later lectures we'll talk
  • 00:02:40
    about case studies from
  • 00:02:41
    today which do involve anthropologists
  • 00:02:46
    getting involved with the communities
  • 00:02:48
    they study
  • 00:02:50
    um so
  • 00:02:53
    obviously it's probably a step in the
  • 00:02:55
    right direction if you're going to talk
  • 00:02:56
    about
  • 00:02:57
    an indigenous population in the south
  • 00:02:59
    pacific
  • 00:03:00
    um it it seems like a good idea that you
  • 00:03:04
    should go visit them and see what's
  • 00:03:05
    going on there as opposed to just
  • 00:03:07
    theorizing about them based on
  • 00:03:11
    reports from missionaries and from you
  • 00:03:13
    know colonial outposts
  • 00:03:15
    so uh it does seem like this
  • 00:03:18
    practice of observation is a step in the
  • 00:03:21
    right direction
  • 00:03:22
    but there are you know some questions
  • 00:03:26
    about the ethics
  • 00:03:28
    of an anthropologist coming down
  • 00:03:31
    from london or paris or berlin
  • 00:03:34
    and dropping themselves into an
  • 00:03:37
    indigenous community
  • 00:03:39
    to just kind of you know report
  • 00:03:42
    on their beliefs and their customs and
  • 00:03:44
    their traditions
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    is this a totally innocent um
  • 00:03:49
    practice is there something that's kind
  • 00:03:52
    of inherently
  • 00:03:55
    demonstrates some level of
  • 00:03:57
    disproportionate power
  • 00:03:58
    involved here if the shoes were if the
  • 00:04:01
    tables were reversed
  • 00:04:03
    and someone from
  • 00:04:06
    uh papua new guinea went to london
  • 00:04:09
    and was following around a bunch of
  • 00:04:12
    you know london bankers taking notes on
  • 00:04:15
    what they were doing and
  • 00:04:17
    uh criticizing and uh
  • 00:04:20
    making commenting and interpreting
  • 00:04:22
    everything they were doing
  • 00:04:24
    would that be something that the
  • 00:04:26
    europeans would be comfortable
  • 00:04:28
    with you know maybe maybe not um
  • 00:04:31
    is there something that's kind of
  • 00:04:34
    inherently destructive about
  • 00:04:37
    this kind of fieldwork and this kind of
  • 00:04:39
    observation when you're going into a
  • 00:04:40
    small scale indigenous community
  • 00:04:44
    are you is there an idea that we should
  • 00:04:47
    be preserving
  • 00:04:49
    indigenous communities as some kind of
  • 00:04:51
    pristine
  • 00:04:52
    untouched people is that possible is
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    that a
  • 00:04:56
    is that a delusional aspiration or is it
  • 00:05:00
    something that we should aspire to
  • 00:05:02
    you know to what extent will the
  • 00:05:04
    ethnographer's
  • 00:05:06
    uh presence you know have
  • 00:05:10
    long-term repercussions maybe negative
  • 00:05:13
    maybe maybe positive
  • 00:05:15
    um is it a is it
  • 00:05:18
    are you even is this dropping down from
  • 00:05:20
    from europe
  • 00:05:21
    as these anthropologists were doing in
  • 00:05:23
    the early 1900s
  • 00:05:24
    and observing populations are you going
  • 00:05:26
    to get an accurate representation are
  • 00:05:28
    you going to be able to get
  • 00:05:30
    an objective uh interpretation of
  • 00:05:33
    understanding of the population you're
  • 00:05:35
    studying the power differentials are
  • 00:05:37
    always going to be there
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    and as try as we might you know there's
  • 00:05:41
    always going to be
  • 00:05:42
    some level of bias uh when you're
  • 00:05:46
    you know investigating a new group or a
  • 00:05:49
    novel group
  • 00:05:50
    um we try our hardest to
  • 00:05:54
    uh check all of our biases
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    but you know they're often still going
  • 00:06:00
    to be there no matter how well
  • 00:06:02
    intentioned um
  • 00:06:04
    we we might be um so there's definitely
  • 00:06:08
    some questions that you could raise
  • 00:06:10
    about the ethics and morality of this
  • 00:06:13
    whole anthropological endeavor as it was
  • 00:06:15
    done in the early 1900s
  • 00:06:17
    where you know you have these people
  • 00:06:19
    coming from
  • 00:06:20
    colonizing countries to colonized
  • 00:06:23
    countries
  • 00:06:24
    to basically um you know
  • 00:06:27
    document and make note of the traditions
  • 00:06:30
    beliefs
  • 00:06:31
    subsistence practices languages of
  • 00:06:35
    other populations now you know it's
  • 00:06:37
    possible that the intentions of these
  • 00:06:39
    early anthropologists are quite virtuous
  • 00:06:41
    and trying to gain a greater
  • 00:06:43
    understanding of humankind
  • 00:06:45
    and all of its diversity these are these
  • 00:06:48
    are somewhat virtuous goals
  • 00:06:50
    and some of the anthropologists
  • 00:06:52
    themselves were you know had greatest of
  • 00:06:54
    intentions
  • 00:06:55
    um but at the same time can
  • 00:06:58
    their work also be exploited
  • 00:07:01
    by the colonizing powers in europe you
  • 00:07:03
    know france and germany and
  • 00:07:05
    and the uk you know to what extent is
  • 00:07:09
    the
  • 00:07:09
    the research that these anthropologists
  • 00:07:12
    are doing
  • 00:07:13
    also capable of being exploited
  • 00:07:15
    militarily by
  • 00:07:17
    colonizing countries these are
  • 00:07:19
    definitely big concerns that we should
  • 00:07:21
    have
  • 00:07:22
    when we're looking at this anthropology
  • 00:07:24
    from the early
  • 00:07:26
    1900s and you know to some extent we
  • 00:07:29
    still have to be
  • 00:07:30
    aware of these most anthropologists are
  • 00:07:32
    aware of a lot of these issues and
  • 00:07:34
    concerns and
  • 00:07:35
    you know do strive to diminish
  • 00:07:38
    their impact um but they're definitely
  • 00:07:41
    you know
  • 00:07:42
    questions that should be asked i think
  • 00:07:44
    you know to what extent
  • 00:07:45
    is the is the act of anthropology
  • 00:07:48
    inherently kind of
  • 00:07:50
    you know is it is it in is it demeaning
  • 00:07:53
    to
  • 00:07:55
    you know catalogue
  • 00:07:58
    these different populations like there's
  • 00:08:00
    some kind of taxonomy of species
  • 00:08:03
    in a zoo or something like that you know
  • 00:08:05
    that's a
  • 00:08:06
    pretty legitimate critique that you
  • 00:08:08
    could ask again the goal isn't
  • 00:08:09
    necessarily just to like catalog
  • 00:08:11
    all the different varieties of humanity
  • 00:08:15
    the goal ultimately is to learn more
  • 00:08:17
    about
  • 00:08:19
    humanity and how humans organize
  • 00:08:21
    themselves
  • 00:08:22
    with perhaps you know the long-term goal
  • 00:08:25
    and ambition
  • 00:08:26
    of you know being able to bring some of
  • 00:08:30
    these lessons about how
  • 00:08:32
    the diverse ways that humans organize
  • 00:08:34
    themselves to bear on our own societies
  • 00:08:36
    and
  • 00:08:37
    perhaps organizing our own societies and
  • 00:08:38
    a more just and sustainable
  • 00:08:40
    manner that's the ultimate long-term
  • 00:08:43
    goal
  • 00:08:44
    we don't seem to ever quite get there so
  • 00:08:47
    anyway um just to look at a couple of
  • 00:08:50
    these case studies and these um
  • 00:08:52
    these what i'm going to talk about are
  • 00:08:55
    taken from a couple of the readings that
  • 00:08:56
    are in the folder i believe for
  • 00:08:58
    uh uh january 6th
  • 00:09:02
    um so uh one of the
  • 00:09:05
    this is a map obviously on the screen
  • 00:09:08
    here um the south pacific you can
  • 00:09:11
    you pretty much usually you probably
  • 00:09:12
    know australia is
  • 00:09:14
    new zealand is off to the the southeast
  • 00:09:17
    of that and papua new guinea is to the
  • 00:09:18
    north
  • 00:09:19
    um so we're gonna look first at uh this
  • 00:09:22
    case study in the trobriand
  • 00:09:24
    islands um which is off the east of
  • 00:09:27
    papua new guinea
  • 00:09:28
    um it's kind of this interesting
  • 00:09:31
    uh island chain that forms something of
  • 00:09:35
    a
  • 00:09:35
    circle if you use your imagination
  • 00:09:38
    and there's kind of a ring of uh
  • 00:09:42
    islands that go around off the coast of
  • 00:09:44
    papua new guinea and they're called the
  • 00:09:45
    trobriand islands
  • 00:09:47
    some of them are pretty big some of them
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    are pretty small some might have
  • 00:09:50
    populations of uh
  • 00:09:52
    of thousands some might have populations
  • 00:09:54
    of 50 some of them are
  • 00:09:55
    probably uninhabited um so that's where
  • 00:09:59
    we're going to take a look first and
  • 00:10:02
    this is from the work of uh that
  • 00:10:06
    malinowski guy
  • 00:10:07
    he uh did actually go to these islands
  • 00:10:10
    and studied the
  • 00:10:11
    trophy and islanders the population
  • 00:10:13
    there and was really fascinated by
  • 00:10:16
    this uh network of exchange and trade
  • 00:10:20
    that goes on in the tro brand islands
  • 00:10:23
    uh it's called uh it has a name amongst
  • 00:10:26
    the indigenous people there it's
  • 00:10:28
    the kula ring or the practicing the kula
  • 00:10:32
    kula um in which they exchange back and
  • 00:10:36
    forth these
  • 00:10:37
    armbands and uh necklaces
  • 00:10:41
    uh perpetually that the practice has
  • 00:10:45
    somewhat died down and died out today or
  • 00:10:48
    it's it's dying
  • 00:10:49
    it's still sometimes engaged in but for
  • 00:10:52
    the most part
  • 00:10:54
    sadly this practice is
  • 00:10:57
    seeming seems to be on on the way out
  • 00:11:01
    um because the islanders have been
  • 00:11:04
    colonized and
  • 00:11:05
    have switched to uh monetary economies
  • 00:11:10
    um so they engage in this trade around
  • 00:11:12
    these islands
  • 00:11:14
    and there's some interesting rules about
  • 00:11:16
    it there's these armbands
  • 00:11:18
    that always circulate in a
  • 00:11:20
    counterclockwise fashion
  • 00:11:21
    and these necklaces that always
  • 00:11:23
    circulate in a clockwise fashion
  • 00:11:25
    and they just keep trading them
  • 00:11:26
    perpetually on and on and on
  • 00:11:28
    um you know one person might bring an
  • 00:11:30
    armband to one island
  • 00:11:32
    and then exchange it with someone um
  • 00:11:35
    and give it to someone and then that
  • 00:11:37
    person might have it for a while have it
  • 00:11:39
    for a year or so
  • 00:11:40
    and then they'll exchange that on again
  • 00:11:43
    uh in another to another island um or
  • 00:11:46
    someone might come to that island and
  • 00:11:48
    then they exchange it with them
  • 00:11:50
    um so you don't always have them for a
  • 00:11:51
    very long time or you might have them
  • 00:11:53
    for
  • 00:11:53
    you know a few years but you can always
  • 00:11:56
    um they they move around a lot
  • 00:11:58
    they're always kind of coming and going
  • 00:12:01
    you don't
  • 00:12:02
    really get too attached to them you
  • 00:12:04
    might they might be really
  • 00:12:06
    elaborate ones that are really cool and
  • 00:12:08
    you know you're
  • 00:12:10
    like if you hold them for a while you're
  • 00:12:13
    kind of they're very
  • 00:12:14
    you know they have some value to them
  • 00:12:16
    and you're seen as you know
  • 00:12:18
    quite wealthy for having like the
  • 00:12:20
    coolest uh
  • 00:12:21
    necklace for a while but you probably
  • 00:12:24
    will
  • 00:12:24
    not always have it it's um you know
  • 00:12:27
    it'll it'll be
  • 00:12:29
    exchanged at some point one way or the
  • 00:12:30
    other um so they
  • 00:12:32
    you know they kind of engage in this
  • 00:12:33
    perpetual exchange they're always moving
  • 00:12:35
    them around
  • 00:12:36
    um and it's an interesting
  • 00:12:39
    kind of practice and this is just this
  • 00:12:42
    malinowski guy observing this
  • 00:12:44
    and then trying to come in and interpret
  • 00:12:45
    what's going on here
  • 00:12:47
    because these aren't necessarily um
  • 00:12:49
    functional items it's not necessarily
  • 00:12:51
    like
  • 00:12:52
    um you know you can't feed yourself or
  • 00:12:54
    keep yourself warm
  • 00:12:56
    with an armband or necklace um
  • 00:12:59
    they're not yeah they're not very
  • 00:13:00
    functional necessarily
  • 00:13:03
    so you know and it also seems kind of
  • 00:13:05
    weird this rule about always
  • 00:13:07
    circulating the armbands one way and the
  • 00:13:09
    necklace is one way
  • 00:13:11
    and the idea that you don't hang on to
  • 00:13:12
    them too often
  • 00:13:14
    um so malinowski is curious as to why
  • 00:13:19
    they engage in this practice because
  • 00:13:20
    it's kind of costly
  • 00:13:22
    anytime you voyage out on these seas it
  • 00:13:25
    requires a lot of labor
  • 00:13:26
    and it's actually quite dangerous too
  • 00:13:28
    these are pretty rough seas
  • 00:13:30
    out there of papua new guinea so it's
  • 00:13:33
    kind of this weird thing where like
  • 00:13:35
    you know you're going around this other
  • 00:13:37
    island exchanging this kind of
  • 00:13:39
    useless but maybe pretty thing um
  • 00:13:42
    and then you have it for a while and
  • 00:13:44
    then you you know move it on to the next
  • 00:13:46
    island
  • 00:13:46
    or it goes on the next island or when
  • 00:13:49
    next time someone comes you exchange it
  • 00:13:51
    so it doesn't seem like
  • 00:13:54
    like anthropologists have a hard time
  • 00:13:56
    with uh or
  • 00:13:58
    they they they like to think about
  • 00:14:00
    things that don't seem to have any
  • 00:14:01
    functional purpose
  • 00:14:02
    so malinowski is a functionalist is what
  • 00:14:05
    you would
  • 00:14:06
    he would call himself um he's concerned
  • 00:14:09
    about
  • 00:14:11
    what the underlying function is of all
  • 00:14:14
    of our human behaviors
  • 00:14:16
    um you know because if you look at
  • 00:14:18
    something like dancing
  • 00:14:20
    or you know music or any sort of
  • 00:14:23
    religious
  • 00:14:24
    belief or mythology these things aren't
  • 00:14:28
    really helping us you know
  • 00:14:31
    feed ourselves at least not immediately
  • 00:14:34
    they don't seem like they are
  • 00:14:36
    so for malinowski he really thinks that
  • 00:14:38
    you can sort of
  • 00:14:39
    break down any
  • 00:14:43
    behavior that a society exercises
  • 00:14:46
    you can break it down to the role it
  • 00:14:49
    plays
  • 00:14:49
    in sort of ensuring eating
  • 00:14:53
    and procreating basically basically
  • 00:14:57
    uh at the end of the day malinowski
  • 00:15:00
    believes that all of our culture and all
  • 00:15:02
    of our art and all of our songs and all
  • 00:15:04
    of our music
  • 00:15:05
    can be boiled down to you know one in
  • 00:15:08
    one way or the other
  • 00:15:09
    some sort of effort to ensuring that
  • 00:15:11
    we're able to
  • 00:15:12
    have sex and eat basically um
  • 00:15:16
    uh and that's behind you know what we
  • 00:15:18
    see in a lot of ceremonies and
  • 00:15:20
    celebrations and festivals and
  • 00:15:22
    um and other sort of cultural artifacts
  • 00:15:25
    is at the end of the day
  • 00:15:27
    just trying to ensure that that society
  • 00:15:29
    continued to procreate
  • 00:15:31
    and to eat so when he sees a practice
  • 00:15:34
    like this cooler ring
  • 00:15:35
    this sort of ceremonial exchange of
  • 00:15:38
    these armbands and necklaces
  • 00:15:40
    what he really wants to do is interpret
  • 00:15:42
    this in a sort of way
  • 00:15:43
    that can be boiled down into the purpose
  • 00:15:45
    it might serve
  • 00:15:46
    in procreating or eating basically or
  • 00:15:49
    the purpose it might serve in
  • 00:15:51
    perpetuating the society which you have
  • 00:15:55
    to you can boil that down to procreating
  • 00:15:57
    or eating
  • 00:15:58
    so uh here's just a couple ideas about
  • 00:16:00
    this this functionalism idea
  • 00:16:04
    um and how it pertains to the cooler
  • 00:16:07
    ring
  • 00:16:08
    so yeah well like you know the armbands
  • 00:16:11
    and the necklaces
  • 00:16:12
    aren't necessarily um
  • 00:16:15
    critical to survival they're not
  • 00:16:16
    necessarily critical to perpetuating the
  • 00:16:19
    society
  • 00:16:20
    um malinowski argues that they do
  • 00:16:24
    have this function of ensuring
  • 00:16:28
    uh harmonious or tranquil
  • 00:16:31
    uh relations in between the islands each
  • 00:16:34
    each island has its own kind of
  • 00:16:36
    community
  • 00:16:37
    they don't hang out all the time it's
  • 00:16:39
    not like uh you know
  • 00:16:41
    the islands are pretty far apart so you
  • 00:16:43
    know one island has its kind of
  • 00:16:45
    way of doing things another island has
  • 00:16:47
    its way of doing things
  • 00:16:49
    but malinowski's argument and i think
  • 00:16:51
    he's right for the most part
  • 00:16:53
    is that this cooler ring one of the
  • 00:16:56
    things it does one of its functions
  • 00:16:58
    is that it serves to cohere and keep
  • 00:17:01
    friendly relations basically
  • 00:17:03
    with all the islanders um and
  • 00:17:06
    you know while these necklaces and
  • 00:17:09
    armbands might not
  • 00:17:10
    be critical for surviving um
  • 00:17:13
    when you sort of maintain friendly
  • 00:17:15
    relations with your neighboring island
  • 00:17:17
    you know then you build up trust and you
  • 00:17:19
    build up relationships and
  • 00:17:21
    perhaps uh you know malinowski would
  • 00:17:24
    argue that maybe when times are tough
  • 00:17:26
    maybe when there is a drought
  • 00:17:27
    or something like that you could maybe
  • 00:17:29
    call upon your island friends and say
  • 00:17:31
    hey we've fought on hard times can you
  • 00:17:33
    do us a favor
  • 00:17:34
    so um
  • 00:17:39
    this cooler trade for malinowski
  • 00:17:42
    isn't about the necklaces and it isn't
  • 00:17:44
    about the armbands it's
  • 00:17:46
    about um building social bonds
  • 00:17:49
    um and trying to ensure
  • 00:17:54
    i mean in one way or the other that
  • 00:17:55
    there's not antagonism
  • 00:17:57
    and competitiveness between the islands
  • 00:18:00
    because you know this is
  • 00:18:01
    these islands you could imagine a world
  • 00:18:04
    in which perhaps they were antagonistic
  • 00:18:06
    towards each other
  • 00:18:07
    where they would compete over resources
  • 00:18:10
    or maybe one island would try to take
  • 00:18:11
    over another island
  • 00:18:13
    you know certainly in the history of our
  • 00:18:14
    species things like that have happened
  • 00:18:17
    but the cooler ring is a way to ensure
  • 00:18:19
    that that doesn't happen
  • 00:18:21
    uh it's a sort of socially developed
  • 00:18:24
    system of ensuring good relations and
  • 00:18:26
    ensuring that there's not violence in
  • 00:18:28
    between the islands
  • 00:18:30
    and perhaps that you know the different
  • 00:18:32
    islands can draw on each other
  • 00:18:35
    um in times of need or in times of
  • 00:18:37
    crisis and that they're not going to war
  • 00:18:39
    all the time
  • 00:18:40
    and not fighting over scarce resources
  • 00:18:42
    um what's interesting though is
  • 00:18:44
    is malinowski doesn't really believe
  • 00:18:46
    doesn't think
  • 00:18:47
    that the trobriand islanders are aware
  • 00:18:50
    of this
  • 00:18:51
    themselves they don't think he he
  • 00:18:54
    develops this interpretation where the
  • 00:18:55
    cooler ring is all about sort of
  • 00:18:57
    maintaining these social bonds but he
  • 00:19:00
    also goes on to say things like
  • 00:19:02
    but the trobriand dialers don't even
  • 00:19:04
    know it he has this
  • 00:19:06
    you know fairly uh patronizing
  • 00:19:09
    ethnocentric
  • 00:19:11
    quote about the islanders they have no
  • 00:19:13
    knowledge of the total outline of any of
  • 00:19:15
    their social structure
  • 00:19:17
    they know their own motives know the
  • 00:19:19
    purpose of individual actions
  • 00:19:20
    but how the whole collective institution
  • 00:19:22
    works this is beyond their mental range
  • 00:19:24
    so if nothing else that's a little bit
  • 00:19:26
    insulting
  • 00:19:27
    um suggesting that here i am this you
  • 00:19:30
    know highly
  • 00:19:31
    university educated westerner you know
  • 00:19:34
    european guy coming down here and
  • 00:19:37
    i'm going to observe your system for you
  • 00:19:40
    know a year or so
  • 00:19:41
    and i'm going to understand it and i can
  • 00:19:44
    understand it because i'm coming from
  • 00:19:45
    this
  • 00:19:46
    you know educated position but you know
  • 00:19:48
    you
  • 00:19:49
    you know primitive trobriand islanders
  • 00:19:52
    you're just engaging in this behavior
  • 00:19:55
    kind of
  • 00:19:56
    automatically kind of reflexively
  • 00:19:58
    without even knowing why
  • 00:20:00
    you're doing it um i don't
  • 00:20:04
    know if he's right about that it's
  • 00:20:06
    pretty presumptuous of course
  • 00:20:08
    um uh to speak of this kind of native
  • 00:20:11
    mentality he
  • 00:20:12
    he writes not being able to sort of have
  • 00:20:15
    it have the mental range to grasp
  • 00:20:18
    what's going on um
  • 00:20:25
    it's interesting to think again about
  • 00:20:29
    how the the
  • 00:20:30
    this you know how things might look the
  • 00:20:32
    other way around if uh
  • 00:20:34
    while you know this kind of exchange of
  • 00:20:36
    the
  • 00:20:37
    armbands and the um
  • 00:20:41
    uh necklaces seems kind of
  • 00:20:44
    ceremonial and just
  • 00:20:47
    a bit of a um
  • 00:20:51
    at least as malinowski interprets it
  • 00:20:53
    just to kind of
  • 00:20:54
    facade for a more important underlying
  • 00:20:56
    function
  • 00:20:57
    um you know
  • 00:21:01
    the kind of exchange that people engage
  • 00:21:04
    in on
  • 00:21:05
    you know on wall street floors where
  • 00:21:08
    they're you know
  • 00:21:09
    making weird hand signals and trading
  • 00:21:12
    abstract pieces of companies isn't that
  • 00:21:15
    kind of
  • 00:21:16
    that's a pretty weird thing that we do
  • 00:21:18
    um it's just as kind of
  • 00:21:21
    uh you know socially constructed or
  • 00:21:24
    abstract
  • 00:21:26
    um why do you know
  • 00:21:30
    financial people wall street people
  • 00:21:32
    engage in this kind of exchange where
  • 00:21:34
    they
  • 00:21:35
    buy and sell very rapidly
  • 00:21:39
    very very small parts of companies
  • 00:21:42
    it's a weird thing to do too i think
  • 00:21:44
    it's always good to look at
  • 00:21:46
    how weird the things we do are so
  • 00:21:49
    um the way that exchange works on the
  • 00:21:53
    trobriand islands
  • 00:21:54
    is raises some interesting questions
  • 00:21:56
    about what wealth
  • 00:21:58
    is and what how different societies
  • 00:22:00
    conceive of
  • 00:22:02
    wealth um oftentimes wealth and
  • 00:22:05
    across a lot of different kinds of
  • 00:22:07
    societies is
  • 00:22:08
    maybe sometimes framed in terms of
  • 00:22:10
    materiality you know if it's weapons or
  • 00:22:13
    food or
  • 00:22:14
    gold coins or houses or wives or
  • 00:22:18
    children
  • 00:22:20
    um or cows or chickens oftentimes
  • 00:22:24
    uh wealth is is perceived in one way or
  • 00:22:26
    another
  • 00:22:27
    in in material ways but
  • 00:22:31
    this cooler ring this trading system
  • 00:22:34
    that goes on
  • 00:22:35
    in the trobriand islands is
  • 00:22:38
    interesting in that
  • 00:22:42
    the unit of wealth here it doesn't
  • 00:22:44
    necessarily seem to be
  • 00:22:47
    the necklaces themselves or
  • 00:22:51
    the armbands what really is the
  • 00:22:55
    measure of the wealth here seems to be
  • 00:22:57
    the amount of trading partners
  • 00:22:59
    that any one person can have if you take
  • 00:23:02
    a look at the article
  • 00:23:03
    um you know that's that's how one
  • 00:23:06
    sort of builds up wealth not through the
  • 00:23:09
    actual armbands themselves but
  • 00:23:11
    by acquiring lots of different trading
  • 00:23:14
    partners
  • 00:23:15
    so you know if you have a neighboring
  • 00:23:16
    island you know and you have
  • 00:23:19
    you know two or three or four people
  • 00:23:20
    that you trade with from that island
  • 00:23:22
    and then you then the next island over
  • 00:23:24
    you have two or three or four or five
  • 00:23:26
    people you traded with
  • 00:23:27
    in that island that amount of trading
  • 00:23:30
    partners
  • 00:23:31
    is that's the kind of it seems like the
  • 00:23:35
    the measure of wealth going on in the
  • 00:23:37
    trobriand islands
  • 00:23:38
    system at least as it was um
  • 00:23:42
    uh because you know if you have all
  • 00:23:44
    those relationships
  • 00:23:46
    basically cultivating relationships that
  • 00:23:49
    um you know provides you security and
  • 00:23:51
    provides you
  • 00:23:52
    a source of you know material goods if
  • 00:23:55
    you
  • 00:23:55
    if you need them so
  • 00:23:59
    what's going on here it seems like is is
  • 00:24:01
    wealth is kind of being measured in like
  • 00:24:03
    a social
  • 00:24:04
    network kind of way kind of like the
  • 00:24:06
    accumulation of friends kind of like the
  • 00:24:07
    more friends you have
  • 00:24:08
    the wealthier you are the more trading
  • 00:24:10
    partners you have the more
  • 00:24:12
    wealthy you are and you have this um
  • 00:24:16
    uh again it's about sort of cultivating
  • 00:24:18
    relationships and interaction
  • 00:24:20
    which seems like the underlying uh
  • 00:24:23
    measure of wealth going on
  • 00:24:25
    uh in this trill brand islands trading
  • 00:24:27
    system at least as it was
  • 00:24:29
    100 years ago today uh in 2020
  • 00:24:33
    uh the island is for the most part
  • 00:24:36
    on a uh currency a monetary currency
  • 00:24:41
    like we have in the us so this measure
  • 00:24:44
    of wealth
  • 00:24:45
    is on the decline it seems like
  • 00:24:48
    today um so
  • 00:24:51
    uh just to think a little bit more about
  • 00:24:56
    what gifts are and what exchange is
  • 00:25:00
    uh there's another uh article in
  • 00:25:03
    blackboard
  • 00:25:05
    uh about the maori people of new zealand
  • 00:25:09
    so let's take a look at uh what's going
  • 00:25:12
    on there that one is by
  • 00:25:13
    marcel mouse a french
  • 00:25:16
    sociologist um he
  • 00:25:20
    has this idea of total social facts we
  • 00:25:22
    talked about social facts in the last
  • 00:25:24
    lecture um uh he sees
  • 00:25:29
    the gift exchange that's practiced by
  • 00:25:31
    the maori people in new zealand as a
  • 00:25:33
    total
  • 00:25:33
    social fact and by that he means that
  • 00:25:37
    gift exchange the practice of gift
  • 00:25:39
    exchange
  • 00:25:40
    encompasses economic political religious
  • 00:25:44
    and legal realms and spheres it's
  • 00:25:46
    something
  • 00:25:48
    it's not just a religious thing the gift
  • 00:25:50
    exchange it's not just an economic thing
  • 00:25:52
    it's not just a political thing you know
  • 00:25:54
    how sometimes we break down
  • 00:25:56
    our activities into you know today i'm
  • 00:25:59
    going
  • 00:26:00
    uh to church and i'm gonna do my
  • 00:26:01
    religious activity
  • 00:26:03
    or i'm gonna go to the bank and do my
  • 00:26:07
    economic activity um the
  • 00:26:11
    gift exchange which seems like maybe
  • 00:26:13
    it's it might normally fall in the
  • 00:26:15
    economic sphere
  • 00:26:17
    at least as it's practiced among the
  • 00:26:19
    maori people in new zealand
  • 00:26:21
    seems to encompass all of these fears
  • 00:26:23
    for for the mayor
  • 00:26:24
    giving a gift is a religious act
  • 00:26:28
    it is a legal act a lawful act it has
  • 00:26:31
    legal repercussions and it's also a
  • 00:26:33
    political act in that it
  • 00:26:37
    is a way of sort of exerting and
  • 00:26:38
    demonstrating
  • 00:26:40
    uh power so at least as marcel mouse
  • 00:26:43
    interprets it
  • 00:26:45
    we can always again uh we can always
  • 00:26:47
    agree to
  • 00:26:48
    we can always disagree with any of these
  • 00:26:52
    anthropologists i don't want to
  • 00:26:54
    when i'm interpreting interpreting these
  • 00:26:56
    articles and kind of summarizing them
  • 00:26:58
    i don't want
  • 00:27:02
    it to be seeming like i'm just saying
  • 00:27:04
    that these guys are 100 right
  • 00:27:06
    all the time and we can't question them
  • 00:27:08
    i'm just kind of summarizing here
  • 00:27:10
    um so uh you know it's not so
  • 00:27:14
    crazy this idea this isn't like some
  • 00:27:17
    really weird bizarre notion of gifts
  • 00:27:20
    that's
  • 00:27:21
    totally alien to you or i i'm sure
  • 00:27:24
    um but among the majority as marcel
  • 00:27:27
    mouse interprets it
  • 00:27:28
    there is the the obligation to receive a
  • 00:27:30
    gift is just as important as the
  • 00:27:32
    obligation to give so
  • 00:27:34
    um you know to turn down a gift would
  • 00:27:37
    have it would be a
  • 00:27:38
    incredible uh insult or taboo you would
  • 00:27:42
    not turn down
  • 00:27:43
    a gift um
  • 00:27:47
    uh it's not necessarily about
  • 00:27:50
    you know the circulation of goods it's
  • 00:27:52
    not it's not always necessarily serving
  • 00:27:54
    like
  • 00:27:54
    functional purposes uh marcel mouse
  • 00:27:57
    would say
  • 00:27:58
    and again this exchange of gifts
  • 00:28:02
    uh it's basically building
  • 00:28:06
    a bond between two humans you have
  • 00:28:09
    when you have this kind of reciprocal
  • 00:28:12
    gift
  • 00:28:12
    exchange system where it's
  • 00:28:16
    like kind of mandatory to receive and to
  • 00:28:18
    give gifts and
  • 00:28:19
    in this particular case in the maori
  • 00:28:21
    case there's always kind of an effort to
  • 00:28:23
    one-up
  • 00:28:24
    the other person's gift like if someone
  • 00:28:26
    gives you like
  • 00:28:27
    you know a gold watch then
  • 00:28:30
    you would want to give them you know or
  • 00:28:32
    someone gives you like sneakers or
  • 00:28:34
    something like that you'd like want to
  • 00:28:35
    one-up them and give them like a gold
  • 00:28:37
    watch if that's
  • 00:28:37
    the thing that you're exchanging um
  • 00:28:41
    but you do again just like with the
  • 00:28:43
    trobriand islands you build this
  • 00:28:45
    system of uh
  • 00:28:48
    mutual interest
  • 00:28:52
    in the other group or person's
  • 00:28:54
    well-being
  • 00:28:56
    so if you're engaged in this reciprocal
  • 00:28:59
    gift
  • 00:29:00
    uh giving system you know
  • 00:29:03
    you you kind of manufacture
  • 00:29:07
    this uh mutually beneficial
  • 00:29:12
    relationship where
  • 00:29:15
    you know if i've given you a gift i
  • 00:29:18
    really
  • 00:29:18
    want you to succeed and do well
  • 00:29:22
    and prosper because
  • 00:29:25
    you owe me a gift back and so i really
  • 00:29:27
    want you to prosper and do well in life
  • 00:29:29
    so i mean maybe it's selfish but so that
  • 00:29:32
    you can give me a good gift back too
  • 00:29:35
    as opposed to this kind of zero-sum
  • 00:29:37
    competitive game
  • 00:29:38
    where that is maybe more familiar to us
  • 00:29:41
    in the us
  • 00:29:42
    where you know it's kind of like
  • 00:29:46
    i want to succeed and my success
  • 00:29:48
    requires maybe me
  • 00:29:50
    beating you out or you know my success
  • 00:29:53
    might require your failure
  • 00:29:55
    you know like we're competing over a job
  • 00:29:57
    or we're competing over
  • 00:29:59
    clients or something like that um
  • 00:30:02
    that doesn't work that way in this sort
  • 00:30:04
    of maori and philbrian system
  • 00:30:07
    where actually my success i will become
  • 00:30:10
    more successful the more successful you
  • 00:30:13
    become
  • 00:30:14
    when you have this kind of reciprocal
  • 00:30:16
    gift exchange system
  • 00:30:18
    it forces if i've given you a gift
  • 00:30:21
    it forces me to wish you well
  • 00:30:24
    and for wish for you to prosper and to
  • 00:30:26
    have great success in life
  • 00:30:28
    because i want a good gift back and
  • 00:30:30
    obviously of course it makes me wish for
  • 00:30:32
    your well-being and your health
  • 00:30:34
    because you know i i don't want you to
  • 00:30:36
    die before you can give me my gifts
  • 00:30:38
    before you can reciprocate my gift so we
  • 00:30:41
    forged this bond this alliance where
  • 00:30:44
    we've created this relationship where
  • 00:30:46
    each partner
  • 00:30:47
    you know has constructed this mutual
  • 00:30:50
    well-wishing
  • 00:30:52
    um uh system uh
  • 00:30:56
    which yeah it sort of feeds this
  • 00:31:00
    um it's as opposed to a kind of
  • 00:31:04
    zero sum my losses your gain kind of
  • 00:31:07
    thing
  • 00:31:08
    everyone's you know one person's gain is
  • 00:31:10
    another person's gain
  • 00:31:12
    in this kind of system um
  • 00:31:15
    so yeah there's a with with the gift
  • 00:31:17
    becomes there's a lot of honor
  • 00:31:19
    um there's some interesting elements
  • 00:31:21
    about the gift
  • 00:31:22
    in maori culture
  • 00:31:26
    it's often talked about as a gift has
  • 00:31:30
    comes with it an essence of the giver
  • 00:31:33
    maybe this is kind of wishy-washy or
  • 00:31:35
    flaky or maybe it sounds that way to uh
  • 00:31:37
    you know 21st century scientific-minded
  • 00:31:41
    skeptical people
  • 00:31:42
    um but the idea is that a gift is imbued
  • 00:31:45
    with some
  • 00:31:46
    element or some aspect or some something
  • 00:31:49
    like a soul
  • 00:31:50
    of the giver of the gift
  • 00:31:56
    in that regard the gift is at times
  • 00:32:00
    personified like if i have given you
  • 00:32:03
    uh a gold watch or whatever
  • 00:32:06
    um that gold watch is kind of
  • 00:32:08
    personified as
  • 00:32:09
    me that gold watch has you know has a
  • 00:32:12
    part of my
  • 00:32:13
    like soul in it um
  • 00:32:17
    uh
  • 00:32:22
    yeah so there's a word for
  • 00:32:26
    this in uh maori uh
  • 00:32:29
    how i guess i've never actually i'm not
  • 00:32:32
    entirely sure that's how it's pronounced
  • 00:32:34
    um but that that thing i'm talking about
  • 00:32:36
    that essence or that spirit or that soul
  • 00:32:40
    uh of the gift is is the word the
  • 00:32:43
    indigenous word for it is
  • 00:32:44
    how um and so the gift
  • 00:32:48
    is imbued with this how
  • 00:32:51
    um and the idea is that this
  • 00:32:55
    how always seeks to return
  • 00:32:58
    home so
  • 00:33:02
    you know the idea is that there's again
  • 00:33:04
    this circulation
  • 00:33:06
    of material objects
  • 00:33:09
    is a vessel for this how finding its way
  • 00:33:13
    or working its way back to
  • 00:33:16
    its starting point um
  • 00:33:21
    just an interesting idea about how
  • 00:33:23
    things differ
  • 00:33:24
    regarding gift exchange um reciprocity
  • 00:33:27
    is a good word to know you probably know
  • 00:33:29
    what it means
  • 00:33:30
    but again that's just kind of a
  • 00:33:31
    description of that kind of relationship
  • 00:33:34
    which is based on kind of mutual
  • 00:33:36
    dependence
  • 00:33:40
    i have some ideas on sort of other
  • 00:33:43
    ways to think about morality
  • 00:33:46
    and exchange
  • 00:33:50
    you know the word economics or the
  • 00:33:52
    discipline economics or you know when
  • 00:33:54
    you take an economics class in school
  • 00:33:56
    uh it's largely concerned with issues of
  • 00:33:58
    resource distribution
  • 00:34:00
    and exchange uh
  • 00:34:03
    the primary goal
  • 00:34:07
    of economic behavior in the united
  • 00:34:09
    states today and in europe today
  • 00:34:12
    and then pretty much among
  • 00:34:15
    you know the better part of seven
  • 00:34:16
    billion of the people on the planet
  • 00:34:18
    today
  • 00:34:19
    the primary goal when it involved and
  • 00:34:21
    when you're involved in
  • 00:34:22
    you know resource distribution and
  • 00:34:24
    exchange is to grow
  • 00:34:26
    your wealth to grow more
  • 00:34:30
    wealth uh and that doesn't seem to be
  • 00:34:32
    the case with other systems
  • 00:34:34
    um so uh there's also
  • 00:34:38
    the uh system
  • 00:34:41
    of potlatch which i'll talk about in
  • 00:34:45
    the next lecture
Tags
  • Anthropologie
  • Kula
  • Malinowski
  • Boas
  • Échange de cadeaux
  • Māori
  • Ethnographie
  • Richesse
  • Société
  • Culture