The purpose of this paper is to investigate the traditional institution of trade and economics among the Trobriand Islanders. The primary focus is on the symbolic interpretation of the acts involved in the kula ring and in yam production, display and distribution. The first section of the paper explains the kula ring and how it operated in Trobriand society at the time of the first ethnographic description of the Trobrianders by Malinowski in 1914. The second section examines how social hierarchy is expressed in trade within the kula ring. The third section looks at the difference between symbolic gift exchange and utilitarian trading and how they intersect in Trobriand society. Finally, the fourth section deals with the cultivation of the yam and its economic contribution of Trobrianders and how other aspects of the society, status and matrilineal kinship patterns, are expressed in the distribution of yams.
The Trobriand Islands are located off the east coast of Papua New Guinea. Today, most Trobrianders still live in small villages and practice subsistence agriculture (Weiner n.p.). Trobrianders are mostly matrilineal and social organized as clans and subdivided into tribes. Tribes are headed by a village “big man” or a chief. (Grofman and Landa 348). Papua New Guinea is linguistically highly diverse with a tendency toward warring factions, which is why the existence of a stable trading pattern and symbolic exchanges are an interesting phenomenon in the region.
The original work on the trade and economic system of the Trobriand Islanders was conducted by Bronislaw Malinowski in 1914, which was first published as Argonauts of the Western Pacific in 1922. Most of the Malinowski’s research took place on the main island of Kiriwina. Other interpretations of the trade and economics of the Trobrianders have been conducted, for example Singh Oberoi in 1962, Hage, Frank and James in 1986, and Weiner in 1992, but Malowski remains the primary source of information about trade and the kula ring. Reductionist interpretations of kula ring focus on practical aspects of the economy, such as how the ring shape minimizes travelling distance using simulation models (Zeigler 7). In contrast, Malinowski attempts to see the institution of trade as a set of social rights and obligations that answers the material and psychological needs of the individual. In his Forward to Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Malinowski sets out the ideal task of ethnology is to study culture from the psychological point of view.
They (ethnographers) have given us, in clear outline, the picture of social institutions often surprisingly vast and complex; they have brought before us the vision of the native as he is, in his religious and magical beliefs and practices. They have allowed us to penetrate into his mind far more deeply than we have ever done. (7)
Throughout Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Malinowski is careful to point out that trade did not exist as a purely utilitarian activity, but was embedded in other aspects of the Trobriand society. As a reaction to the unilineal evolution theorists, such as Lewis Henry Morgan and E. B. Taylor, who assumed a straight line of cultural progress, Malinowski focused on the symbolic, and therefore “civilized” underpinning of economic activities. Malinowski’s theoretical orientation was biopsychological functionalism, which saw cultural features as responses to the biological and psychological needs of the group. To Malinowski, trade is an organized economic activity that meets both the utilitarian material needs of the individual and the psychological need to imbue acts with symbolic meaning. In another excerpt from his Forward to Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Malinowski sets out the mandate of ethnography to observe how institutions within a society are integrated.
One of the first conditions of acceptable Ethnographic work certainly is that it should deal with the totality of all social, cultural and psychological aspects of the community, for they are so interwoven that not one can be understood without taking into consideration all the others. The reader of this monograph will clearly see that, though its main theme is economic – for it deals with commercial enterprise, exchange and trade – constant reference has to be made to social organization, the power of magic, to mythology and folklore, and indeed to all other aspects as well as the main one. (6)
1. The Kula Ring
The kula ring was the central mechanism of the maintenance of Trobriand trade routes and partners. The ceremony of the kula exchange prepared the way for utilitarian trade and helped to sustain the peace and security necessary to foster trade. In Malinowski’s day, the Trobrianders were excellent navigators of the sea and were capable of embarking by hand-crafted canoe on long distance trading and warring expeditions (Malinowski 12). On average, a Trobriander who is a member of the kula ring will undertake the long voyage to make a kula exchange twice annually. Therefore, despite the danger entailed, it is regular event. Essentially, the kula ring is a ceremonial exchange of white shell armbands (m’wali), regarded as female, and red shell necklaces (soulava), regarded as male. The armbands and necklaces were collectively known as vaygu’a valuables. Malinowski describes the shell armbands and necklaces as visually nondescript objects but embodying a great cultural significance that reinforced the history of the kula exchanges.
Long, thin red stings, and big, white worn-out objects, clumsy to sight and greasy to touch. With reverence he (a Trobriander) also would name them, and tell their history, and by who and when they were worn, and by whom they were worn, and how they exchanged hands, and how their temporary possession was a great sign of the importance and glory of the village (54).
The kula ring exchange operates between 18 islands along the north east coast of New Guinea. The ritualistic exchange of armbands and necklaces conducted by the Trobrianders runs parallel to trading expeditions that were based on a barter system that included haggling. In contrast, the kula exchange was ritualized and no haggling was acceptable without damage to the reputation. The flow of the necklaces is clockwise whereas the armbands move counter clockwise. An armband can only be exchanged with a necklace and a necklace can only be exchanged with a. armband. When complete, the exchange is viewed as a “marriage” (Hage, Frank & James 108). A kula partnership is a lifelong relationship and defines rights and obligations of the partners (Malinowski 55). The kula vaygu’a were never kept for any length of time but were continuously circulated. An individual armband or necklace has a value and it is understood that an armband will be exchanged for a necklace of the same relative value.
A partner who has received a Kula gift is expected to give back fair and full value, that is, to give as good an arm-shell as the necklace he received, or vice versa. Again, a very fine article must be replaced by one of equivalent value, and not by several minor ones, though intermediate gifts may be given to mark time before the real payment takes place. (Malinowski 58)
The value of a necklace or armband is established by reputation. Malinowski writes, “each one of the first-class armshells and necklaces has a personal name and a history of its own, and as they circulate around the big ring of the Kula, they are well known, and their appearance in a given district always creates a sensation.” (59)
Not every Trobriander is involved in the kula, and kula transactions can only be conducted between a limited number of partners. Social status was indicated by the number of trading partners with a higher ranking individual having a greater the number of kula partners. Malinowski spends some time detailing the expense of outfitting a kula expedition including the ceremonies surrounding the building and decorating of a sea worthy canoe. Thus, given the dangerous voyage of several hundred miles and the time and resources required, the expedition was not to be undertaken lightly. In view of the highly ritualized and symbolic nature of the expedition, Malinowski explains how his interpretation of the kula ring as trade differs from unilinear evolution concept of “Primitive Economic Man” by explaining that Trobrianders undergo a trading pattern that has symbolic overtones and is not “primitive trade would be that of an exchange of indispensable or useful articles, done without much ceremony or regulation,” (52
That being said, regular contact with a long-distance kula partner can serve as a “host, patron and ally in a land of danger and insecurity” (Malinowski 56). Thus the kula ring had practical political implications and was tied into social hierarchy and provided security in a region that was frequently beset by wars.
2. Social Hierarchy and Trade
The Kula ring reinforces a social hierarchy as heredity chiefs are in possession of the most valuable vaygu’a, are more likely to have prestigeous kula partners, and have the means and authority to build the canoes and mount the kula expeditions. The asymmetric exchange pattern of the kula exchange established the rank of the individual. The kula partners can be givers or receivers. The receiver acquires a debt and failure to reciprocate within an appropriate time period and with an equivalent gift, results in a loss of prestige. Thus, the givers outrank the receivers. Upward mobility is built in as the reputation of an individual can be enhanced by the possession of valuable vaygu’a and that can be achieved by acquiring more prestigious partners, such as chiefs. The chances of receiving a valuable vaygu’a are encouraged by services and gifts.
3. Utilitarian Trade and the kula ring
Malinowski describes a brisk trade among the Melanesian islands.
In general they are daring sailors, industrious manufacturers, and keen traders. The manufacturing centres of important articles, such as pottery, stone implements, canoes, fine baskets, valued ornaments, are localized in several places, according to the skills of the inhabitants, their inherited tribal tradition, and special facilities offered by the district; thence they are traded over wide areas, sometime travelling more than hundreds of miles. (12)
Embedded in this extensive trading system is the kula ring. The kula ring can be characterized as a generalized reciprocity in as much as there is a delayed reciprocity with a broad time limit on the expected date of next exchange. Further, the exchange is with items of roughly equivalent value. The value of each kula is understood by everyone as the items may have been in circulation for some time. Malinowski makes a distinction between Trobriand gimwali, or market exchange, and kula, ritualized gift exchange, but the two are interrelated. Malinowski describes the trade and economic life of the Trobrianders as structured by the kula ring and closely integrated into the social and magical domains:
that the whole tribal life is permeated by a constant give and take; that every ceremony, every legal and customary act is done to the accompaniment of material gift and counter gift; that wealth, given and taken, is one of the main instruments of social organization, of the power of the chief, of the bonds of kinship, and of relationship in law. (94)
Participation in the Kula ring can be negotiated with lower levels of gifts or exchanges. The long term partnerships created by the kula ring facilitate political alliances and maintain a pattern of peaceful trade among potentially warring groups (Grofman and Landa 348). In the course of the kula expeditions, utilitarian items for gimwali market exchange are traded between the islands. The kula trading partners themselves never engaged in gimwali trading, but the partnership allowed individuals from the same village as the partner to engage in utilitarian trading.
4. The Yam Economy, Status and the Expression of Matrilineal Kinship
The Trobriand economy is mostly subsistence horticulture and yams form a valuable contribution to nutrition. Yams are also an indication of power and wealth and, beyond their use as a food staple and payment for services; they have a symbolic importance among Trobrianders (Malinowski 92). Malinowski describes the buildings used to house the yams as important structures in the village. The central placement of the yam houses, their decoration and use as a gathering place for men, all attest to importance of the yams houses being in the public eye and presented for admiration. Note the difference in the average yam house and the chief’s yam house.
In the middle, a big circular space is surrounded by a ring of yam houses. These latter are built on piles, and present a fine, decorative front, with walls of big, round logs, laid crosswise on one another, so as to leave wide interstices through with the store yams can be seen. Some of the store-house strike us at once as being better-built than the rest, and these have also big, ornamented boards, running round the gable and across it. These are the yam houses of the chief or person of rank. Each yam house also has, as a rule, a small platform in front of it, on which groups of men will sit and chat in the evening, and where visitors can rest. (38)
The following excerpt from Malinowski shows how the quality and quantity of yams are valued for their contribution to the nutrition of the community and as a symbolic demonstration of status. The yams are accumulated not because the Trobrianders understand that yams can keep quite well if stored properly, but because they want to make them into a display of wealth and prestige.
Their yam houses are built so that the quantity of food can be gauged, and its quality ascertained through the wide interstices between the beamsThe yams are so arranged that the best specimens come to the outside and are well visible. Special varieties of yams, which grow up to two metres in length, and weigh as much a several kilograms each, are framed in wood and decorated with paint, and hung on the outside of the yam houses. That the right to display food is highly valued can be seen from the fact that in the villages where a chief of high rank resides, the commoners’ storehouses have to be closed with coco-nut leaves, so as not to compete with his. (95)
So important is the display of yams that Malinowski describes a magical rite that is performed on the villagers to make them less inclined to eat the yams and therefore the yams can remain on display for a longer period of time (96). Typically, Trobrianders produce twice as much as they can consume so that the fact that the yams may rot in the yam house does not constitute a hardship (Malinowski 39). Prior to being stored, the yams are arranged in the garden plot with the finest tubers front and centre for a better viewing. Friends and in-laws are free to visit the garden for a period of two weeks. After the viewing period is over, the yams are transported to the village by the owners’ friends or relatives in law (Malinowski 96).
The economically important contribution of yams is also demonstrated in the matrilineal kinship system. Malinowski describes the matrilineal system as an inheritance pattern in which the children inherit their social rank and all possession from the mother. A boy’s maternal uncle is regarded as the true guardian and not the biological father (46). The hard work that goes into the preparation, maintenance and harvesting of the yam garden hardly benefits the owner of the garden. Instead, the fruits of his labor go partly as tribute to the chief and partly to his sister or his daughter if she is married. The gardener receives praise and admiration for his yams, but it is his sister’s or daughter’s wealth that is measured by the quality and quantity of the yams (Malinowski 41). Therefore, the yams are edible, but they are also cultivated in order to fulfill social obligations set out by the matrilineal kinship system because they contribute partly to the prestige of the sisters and daughters of the gardener. Malinowski takes pains to explain that the garden is not merely an economic necessity, but also has symbolic meaning.
All this shows how entirely the real native of flesh and bone differs from the shadowy Primitive Economic Man, on whose imaginary behavior many of the scholastic deductions of abstract economics are based. He is not guided primarily by the desire to satisfy his wants, but by a very complex set of traditional forces, duties and obligations, beliefs in magic, social ambition and vanities. He wants, if he is a man, to achieve social distinction as a good gardener and a good worker in general. (41)
5. Summary
In conclusion, Malowski’s interpretation of the culture and distribution of yams and how the symbolic activities surrounding kula ring facilitate trade could be considered a manifesto of the biopsychological functional theoretical approach to the study of different cultures. Malinowski demonstrates how the kula ring and the yams satisfy the utilitarian needs of the Trobrianders as well as contributing to the symbolic understandings that give meaning to the acts. These aspects of the Trobriand culture are shown as enmeshed in the social hierarchy and matrilineal kinship pattern.
Malinowski distinguishes between symbolic gift exchange and commercial trade. Utilitarian trade, as practiced by the Trobrianders, was facilitated and maintained through the symbolic exchange of kula. The symbolic gift exchange was represented by the kula objects. The kula objects had no value as currency, but their temporary possession conveyed great prestige on the kula partner. Physical possession of a prized kula object may be temporary, but became part of the history of the object and continued to convey prestige after leaving the hands of the partner. Yams could be used a currency, but their possession in large quantities was a demonstration of the owner’s wealth and status.
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