Potlatching among the Kwakuitl

The Kwakiutl are an American Indian tribe that live on the northern shore of Vancouver Island in British Columbia and on the adjacent mainland in a country with a coastline almost as long and inletted per square mile of territory as that of Norway (Bohannon, 1966). The Kwakiutl are significant in that they engage in a very unique form of exchange known as ‘potlatching’. A potlatch was a ceremonial given by a chief and his group, …

…This means that subsistence items themselves do not really enter into the potlatching institutions (Bohannon, 1966). Potlatch is essentially dependent on the environment to ensure that the social and political spheres of the community function properly. If there was not an abundance of natural resources the potlatch would not be able to take place in the way that it does and the world would not have the opportunity to see a perfect example of reciprocal exchange.