Potlatch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Potlatch - Essay ExampleMauss sees this sacrifice switch over as a system of total services that combines both make and revenge and this cycle continues, until it exhausts itself into destruction. hence for Mauss, the potlatch is driven more by the spirit of destruction rather than generosity. Therefore, he is more interested in exploring a totally different aspect of gift giving that is outside the dominant moral edict of the capitalist and consumerist society of the West.The Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian have been studied for this aspect of religious exchange or sacrifice that resembles the phenomenon of potlatch. The potlatch, which is a gift, therefore becomes a symbol of sacrifice and demands an equal sacrifice, whose debt is not automatically cancelled ceaselessly notwithstanding may produce forth a fresh demand for exchange of gift and so forth. therefrom Mauss says that by exchanging gifts that are symbols of power and status a kind of peaceful equilibrium is maintained a nd it is dangerous to not involve oneself in this sacrifice if gifts.The Indian tribes of the North-West America, again, practice the potlatch system, consisting in two tribes or chiefs engaging in a competition of prodigality whoever is the richer confronts the most and destroys his possessions if necessary. All this, however, in order that he himself may prosper, since in this manner he shows that he has power2 However, in Arguing with Anthropology, Karen Margaret Skyes argues that the economies of sacrifice seem to be a misnomer for the depth and crux of the issues that potlatch raises perhaps because Potlatch shakes the common sense of the capitalist ideology, which expresses the angst it expresses by the sheer generosity it shows through the exchange of warring gifts by displaying how much one can give to the other. It therefore stands for the total system of social status without which the ethnographic groups have no identity Therefore, to attain social respect they agree t o endanger their well being. Potlatch probably conjures up the fantasy of modern power, which combines luxurious suicide - an obsessive and slow yet megalomaniac suicide of a society on the whole and shatters the figment of progression towards the capitalist future. Or is it somewhat similar to where we as westerners are headed It is an ironical similarity - potlatch, self-destruction and capitalist consumerist philosophy converge at a point - buy at any terms and death by excess. Potlatch has been variously criticized as giving beyond reason - but is the capitalist frugality reasonable Does presenting an island to a friend any less extravagant or any less paradoxical than a potlatch One can argue that it does not dangerously bind the recipient into any general anatomy of obligation to give back a gift of equal proportion. Yes, it may not - but in a capitalist society excess of ceremony is also a political game that fascinates and horrifies at the same time - it is an excessi ve display of power or a counterpower to something that already exists. Thus, festivities are always a symbol of subversion of power, and it is a separate display of power that already exists or which is seek to overthrow the existing power and seek prominence. Let us also consider the exchange of gift that happens in the Indian society, which is also called dowry, is another