According to
Malinoswski (1922), The “Kula” is a kind of extremely big and complex social institution.
Or it is a form of exchange, of extensive, where people exchange the goods and culture
within their inter-tribal character by communities inhabiting a wide ring of
Island in Popuwa New Guinea. It is form of trade and bit relate with barter
system too. There are different types of cultural system in different society
and they have their own importances which maintain the whole society’s
activities. In this article the author tried to explain about the functionalism
theory by providing a simple example of Kula.
In the Kula, limited number of
member take part to receive the goods (rnwali and soulava), hold them for a short
time and then pass them on to others that’s why they believe on principle of
“once in the Kula, always in a Kula” (Malinowski,1922). In Kula people simply
build up social relation, and they maintain a partnership relation permanent
and lifelong affair by exchanging their goods. Kula is not a surreptitious and
precarious form of exchange but it is contrary, rooted in myth, backed by
traditional law and surrounded with magical rites. Who collect more goods and
social relation their social status become high in Kula. In the Kula, gift
repaid after and interval of time by a counter-gift but not a bartering and
forcing. Thus Kula is simply institution where people can work socially,
economically, legally and anthropologically in their particular area but not a
barter and trade only.
Reference:
Malinoswski, B.
(1922) “The Essentials of Kula,” in McGee, R. J. And R. L. Warms (eds.) (2003)
Anthropological Theory: An introductory History, Boston: McGraw-Hill. PP.
163-178
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