New Worlds: Ring-Givers and Potlatch Chieftains

[swan_tower]

Around the world we tend to share the idea that generosity is a good idea . . . but what we expect from that has changed over time. The New Worlds Patreon takes a look at ring-givers and potlatch chieftains, i.e. conceptions of generosity and how they may have changed over time. Comment over there!

Comments

[sara]

I think you would be wise to self educate further, regarding potlatch, before writing publicly on this subject.

[mindstalk]

What a profoundly unhelpful comment.

[swan_tower]

This is a sensitive enough subject that I'd prefer not to misstep with it, so I'm not going to complain about anyone checking me in that regard.

[mindstalk]

It's not the "you got it wrong" but the "you got it wrong and I won't give you a single clue what" that got me.

But I won't make more fuss about it.

[swan_tower]

I am sorry for the offense. If you're willing to say, which part of it specifically struck you as wrong? Looking at my post here, I can already see that "older notions of generosity" was the wrong phrase to use -- I'll fix that now -- but I don't know what missteps there might have been in the essay itself, and knowing that will make it easier for me to look for better information.

[sara]

The part that was most initially striking to me is that you're talking about it in the past tense, and while the classical contact period potlatch isn't as much of a thing, I would say this is very much a living tradition.

I think you're also putting a set of values on the practice that don't make a lot of sense within the framework of northwest regional indigenous generosity, which in my experience is related to a whole different mindset around physical and geographic property (property is...not the right word) than it is in white cultures. But that...lateral form of operation, within a whole separate set of values, was absolutely not something that early white ethnographers, however well intentioned, could even begin to get their heads around (after all these years I still don't get my head around it every time....)

Like, there are absolutely ways to score points in regional indigenous culture, and I'm sure there were in the 19th C as well because I see traces of it in the historical record, but I think potlatch was less about that and more like...making deposits in the social bank? Bringing yourself up by bringing your community up. It's an individualistic thing but also very much not?

I'm thinking about good things to read about this... and not coming up with a lot that would do a good job of directly addressing this. Elmendorf's Twana ethnography is flawed and v outdated but perhaps relevant, and Lynda Mapes at the Seattle Times does a good job covering the regional tribal beat and touches on related issues regularly. There's also good indigenous reporting coming out of High Country News, and the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission newsletter, but most of that would speak to mindset rather than gift practices.

A good recent example is that when the Colville-owned mill in Omak and a lot of tribal houses burned last month, truckloads of food and materials showed up from Puget Sound tribes almost immediately. Much faster than federal aid (still waiting on a federal disaster declaration, last I heard). Even though they've been very hard hit by the pandemic. So yes, that's absolutely a status display, but it's also a truck full of groceries and diapers and so forth, and I think reading something like that primarily as a display of one-upsmanship would really miss the point.

[swan_tower]

you're talking about it in the past tense

<facepalm>

I know not to do that. Verb tense is, in fact, a thing I frequently think about when writing these essays, because I'm so often drawing examples both from traditions that are well and truly in the past (e.g. ancient Sumer) and those which continue today. I have no idea why it slipped past me this time, but you're absolutely right to call that out, and I apologize again.

I think potlatch was less about that and more like...making deposits in the social bank?

That's a good point to bring up because it is where I started the essay -- the idea that deploying your wealth (in whatever form) to build social relations is a better use for it than stockpiling. I can definitely revise the essay to loop back around to that, rather than emphasizing the desire to outdo somebody else.

I'm thinking about good things to read about this

Thank you for that, even if there aren't any clear-cut answers! When it's a topic I don't know as well, I can certainly go find sources, but knowing how to judge them/which ones are best to focus on is always the challenge.

I really do appreciate your feedback on this, and the time you've taken to respond. I'll probably wait to revise the posted essay until tomorrow just because I want to take the time to make sure I do it right -- but it will get done, and that will be the version that goes into the yearly collection (which gets read by a lot more people anyway).