HONOUR AND CREDIT (NORTH-WEST AMERICA)

From these observations on Melanesian and Polynesian peoples our picture of ?ift economy is already beginning to take shape. Material and moral life, as exemplified in gift exchange, functions there in a manner at once interested and obligatory. Furthermore, the obligation is expressed in myth and imagery, symbolically and col-lectively: it takes the form of interest in the objects exchanged; the objects are never completely sepa-rated from the men who exchange them; the com-munion and alliance they establish are well-nigh indissoluble. The lasting influence of the objects exchanged is a direct expression of the manner in which sub-groups within segmentary societies of an archaic type are constantly embroiled with and fed themselves in debt to each other.

Indian societies of the American North-West have the same institutions, but in a more radical and accentuated form! Barter is unknown there. Even now after long contact with Europeans it does not appear that any of the considerable and continual transfers of wealth take place other¬wise than through the formality of the potlatch. We now describe this institution as we see it.

Attachment:- Hum.zip