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WonderOceanic exchange fact

In the Kula ring of Papua New Guinea's Massim islands, partners sail between islands to exchange shell valuables: red necklaces travel clockwise around the ring and white armbands anticlockwise. No one keeps them for good; each is passed on and carries the story of those who held it.

Kula ring

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The story behind the card

The necklaces are called soulava and the armbands mwali. A participant receives one from a partner on one island and, after a time, passes it on to a partner on another, so the same objects keep circling for generations; famous pieces have their own names and histories. The Polish-born anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski lived in the Trobriand Islands during the First World War and described the Kula in Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922), one of the founding books of modern fieldwork. He showed that it was not barter: prestige came from taking part, from generosity and from being trusted with valued pieces, while ordinary trade in goods went on alongside the ceremonial exchange. The Kula still continues today.

Türkçe oku
Papua Yeni Gine'nin Massim adalarındaki Kula halkasında ortaklar, deniz kabuğundan yapılmış değerli eşyaları değiş tokuş etmek için adadan adaya yelken açar. Kırmızı kolyeler halkada saat yönünde, beyaz bilezikler ters yönde dolaşır. Hiçbiri kimsede kalıcı olarak kalmaz; her biri önceki sahiplerinin hikâyesiyle elden ele geçer.

Kolyelere soulava, bileziklere mwali denir. Katılımcılar bunları bir adadaki ortaklarından alır, bir süre sonra başka bir adadaki ortaklarına verir; böylece aynı eşyalar kuşaklar boyunca dolaşır, ünlü parçaların kendi adları ve hikâyeleri olur. Polonya doğumlu antropolog Bronisław Malinowski, Birinci Dünya Savaşı yıllarında Trobriand Adaları'nda yaşadı ve Kula'yı 1922'de yayımlanan Argonauts of the Western Pacific (Batı Pasifik'in Argonotları) adlı kitabında anlattı. Bu kitap, günümüz alan araştırmasının temel eserlerinden biri sayılır. Malinowski, Kula'nın bir takas olmadığını gösterdi: itibar, törene katılmaktan, cömertlikten ve değerli parçalar emanet edilecek kadar güvenilir olmaktan doğuyordu; sıradan mal ticareti ise bu törensel alışverişin yanında ayrıca sürüyordu. Kula bugün de yaşıyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Kula ring
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