A Papuan plutocracy : ranked exchange on Rossel Island / John Liep.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Liep, John.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shell money--Papua New Guinea--Rossel Island.

Shell money.

Social classes.

Papua New Guinea--Social life and customs.

Papua New Guinea.

Manners and customs.

Social classes--Papua New Guinea--Rossel Island.

Papua New Guinea--Rossel Island.

Physical Description:

xxxviii, 376 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lancaster : Aarhus University Press, 2009.

Summary:

This book is an ethnography of a Melanesian island, an exploration of ranked exchange and a bold critique of anthropological exchange theory. John Liep unravels the complex society and exchange system on Rossel Island east of New Guinea.

At Centre stage is the famous 'Rossel Island money', a hierarchy of more than twenty classes of sea shells displayed at pig feasts and kinship rituals. High ranking shells are monopolized by big men who control exchange and dominate social life on the island. Liep finds that theories of reciprocity and gift giving are founded on uptopian assumptions of social equality. They are unable to account for a system of ranked exchnage where participants are unequal and money is an instrument of distinction and power. Whiles still found in some pacific societies, ranked exchange has remained unddiscovered as a general phenomenon, but Liep argues that it was formerly widespread in the pacific and beyond.

This lightly written and richly illustrated brook will be essential for the study of indigenous currencies and exchnage theory and should be of interest to all oceanists.

Contents:

Prologue 27

1 Massim Transformations 29

Part 1

The Setting 65

2 Rossel Island 67

3 Frameworks of Practice 93

4 Dimensions of Power 125

5 Economic Domains 145

Part 2

Ranked Exchange 165

6 Shell Money and Valuables 167

7 The Cycle of Social Reproduction 211

8 The Pig Feast 259

9 The Remaining Forms of Payment 283

10 The Rules and Practice of Ranked Exchange 297

Epilogue 321

11 A Papuan Plutocracy 323.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [349]-363) and index.

ISBN:

9788779344464

8779344461

OCLC:

320802635