Inalienable Possessions: The Forgotten Dimension -- Reconfiguring Exchange Theory: The Maori Hau -- The Sibling Incest Taboo: Polynesian Cloth and Reproduction -- The Defeat of Hierarchy: Cosmological Authentication in Australia and New Guinea Bones and Stones -- Kula: The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving -- Afterword: The Challenge of Inalienable Possessions
Summary
Inalienable Possessions tests anthropology's traditional assumptions about kinship, economics, power, and gender in an exciting challenge to accepted theories of reciprocity and marriage exchange. Focusing on Oceania societies from Polynesia to Papua New Guinea and including Australian Aborigine groups, Annette Weiner investigates the category of possessions that must not be given or, if they are circulated, must return finally to the giver. Reciprocity, she says, is only the superficial aspect of exchange, which overlays much more politically powerful strategies of "keeping-while-giving."The
Analysis
Feminist anthropology
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-217) and index
Notes
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed
