Disclaimer:
The views expressed here are mine alone, and not necessarily those of my employer or any organization with which I am affiliated. These views are not
intended to advertise or offer legal services to the reader, or to be relied on as practical advice in any respect. Apparent statement of facts may or may
not have been specifically researched beforehand. Unless I expressly indicate to the contrary, the material appearing here is original work, subject
to copyright protection. Any reference in the text to specific individuals or companies who are not explicitly named is unintended and purely
coincidental.
Comments? You can (try to) contact me at admin (at) limitsofknowledge (dot) com.
Keep in mind that I'm still learning the technical aspects of blogging, and do have a demanding job, so don't be offended if it takes me a while
to respond.
Saturday, January 20, 2007 -- 9:34 am
Reading Malinowski's Argonauts of the Western Pacific, I wonder whether there are any parallels betweent the gift-based economy of the
Kula trade and the
open-source/ wiki (sub-)culture that's starting to emerge in parts of the West with respect to certain software and content issues. Neither, strictly
speaking, is clearly motivated by traditional economic notions of self-interest, but then neither is ordinary commerce. This is a consideration
that I'll probably explore later in a subsequent post.
How would the Kula work if the items to be traded were not bracelets and necklaces, but books or ideas? Ideas would seem
to be ideally suited to this mode of exchange, because the whole point of Kula is that you don't retain the items in your possession for long, but continue to
trade them with your Kula partners according to prescribed rituals that perpetuate personal relationships with members of other communities. I'm
also strongly reminded of the rivalries and intrigues among mathematicians during the Renaissance, where they would challenge one another to
various puzzles and contests and jealously guard their algebraic techniques. The Kula trade also seems to dwell quite a bit on the relationships
and prestige of the parties to the exchange, and the history of past exchanges. Although
I still have quite of Malinowski's book left to read, it would be fun to speculate about the elements of the ritual. I will, of course, depart from
Malinowski's model where prompted by imagination.
Exchanges take place with specific, life-long partners (although partners need not be the same age).
The exchanges do not involve overt bargaining.
The exchanges are initiated as gifts from one partner to the other. After a certain amount of time has passed, the partner reciprocates. Ideally,
the responding gift is commensurate in value to the initiating gift, but there are nuances here. A small gift can be given as an interim
gesture to maintain the relationship until a more suitable one is available. Subtle messages can be communicated in the choice of gifts to indicate
the value placed on the relationship, both in absolute terms and relative to other trading relationships, or whether (by, for example, slowly
increasing the number and value of the gifts) a participant would like to increase the significance of the relationship and the value of the gifts that
are exchanged.
The Kula trade involves the exchange of specific types of items, and strictly limits the direction of certain kinds of trade (for example,
bracelets might circulate clockwise around a circle, and armbands counter-clockwise, or vice vera). I would be reluctant to place the same restrictions
on the exchange of books or knowledge (linguistics clockwise, ethnobotany counterclockwise, for example), but could imagine that participants would
traffic in only certain circles based on their interest or expertise in the subject matter. So you might have a handful of geographically dispersed
trading partners whom you occasionally visited and imparted gifts to, and might choose gifts based on the known interests of the trading partners. The
danger here, of course, is that the system of exchange could collapse into a general marketplace. That would be avoided only by emphasizing the ceremony
and the ambassadorial nature of the exchanges.
Whether this would actually work or not, and survive as an institution, would depend on a lot of cultural infrastructure being present. But it
seems like a fun idea. It's an element I plan to incorporate into my writing project.
Sunday, January 14, 2007 -- 8:29 am
As a little housekeeping, I'm starting a separate 'syntactic template' page to consolidate various language notes.