Potlatch Research Paper

A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, such as the Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Tsimshain, Coast Salish, and Kwakiutl (New World Encyclopedia 2008.). Even though there are variant names between each of the practicing tribes, the ceremony is uniformly practiced. In comparison to others, the practice of potlatch is a highly regarded tradition within the Kwakiutl and Tlingit Pacific Northwest tribes (Rosman, 1972.).

Like all types of exchanges, potlatch defines relationships both within and between groups. However, what makes potlatch unique is that it a form of competitive exchange. Here a powerful leader of the groups shows off his wealth and higher social status to other rival leaders. The more food brought to the gift-giving feast, the more power or influence that group leader shows (Rosman 1972.). This then incites the rival leaders to put together an even more elaborate potlatch in order to seem more powerful. An example of this is seen among the people of Kwakiutl. “The Kwakiutl potlatch is the ostentatious and dramatic distribution of property by the holder of fixed, ranked and named social position holders (Codere 63).” Potlatch serves as a purpose to validate the hereditary positions

The influx of manufactured trade goods, such as blankets and sheet copper, from explorers and settlers into the Pacific Northwest caused inflation in the potlatch in the late eighteenth and earlier nineteenth centuries (New World Encyclopedia 2008.). This then lead to an imbalance in the gifts given and received. Some people engaged in the ceremony purely to acquire the most material wealth, causing not only a disintegration in the cultural values of the custom, but also a breakdown in the social structure of the society, causing violence among the native