Potlatch
Gift-giving feast central to Indigenous governance and economy.
Potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, serving as a primary governmental institution, legislative body, and economic system.[1] A potlatch ceremony is characterized by the giving away or destruction of wealth or valuable items to display a leader's affluence and authority, while also reinforcing bonds among families, clans, and nations, as well as connections to the supernatural.[2]
Quick Facts
- Practiced by
- Heiltsuk
- Haida
- Nuxalk
- Tlingit
- Makah
- Tsimshian
- Nuu-chah-nulth
- Kwakwaka'wakw
- Coast Salish
- and others
- Primary function
- Governmental institution
- legislative body
- economic system
- resource management regime
- Key activities
- Gift-giving
- wealth destruction
- music
- dancing
- singing
- storytelling
- speeches
- joking
- games
- Criminalization period
- 1885 to 1951 in Canada
- Origin of word
- Chinook Jargon, from Nuu-chah-nulth paɬaˑč
- Typical occasions
- Births
- deaths
- adoptions
- weddings
- coming-of-age
- title transfers
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
The practice persisted underground despite risk of mandatory jail sentences of at least two months.[3] The potlatch ban was repealed in 1951, and the practice has re-emerged in some communities.[3][4] Potlatches were conducted to mark significant life events including births, deaths, adoptions, and weddings.[5] Only individuals of substantial wealth could serve as potlatch hosts, and tribal slaves were excluded from participating either as hosts or as guests.[6]
In numerous communities, such as the Haida Nation, the potlatch continues to serve as the fundamental institution of Indigenous governance, with the Haida grounding their democratic system in potlatch law.[3]
What the cited sources add
A 1938 article by anthropologist H. G. Barnett described potlatch as helping heal a tarnished reputation, or "cover his shame"[6] In 1883, the department of Indian affairs received a petition from Coast Tsimshian and Nisga’a Chiefs praying that potlatching be "put down"[7] Anthropologist Sergei Kan attended Tlingit potlatches between 1980 and 1987 and observed a language gap between older and younger members.[8] Kan noted that contemporary Tlingit potlatches are no longer obligatory, with only about 30% of adult tribal members participating.[8]
Dorothy Johansen characterized the potlatch dynamic as one where a host challenges a rival chief to surpass him in the capacity to give away or destroy goods; failure to reciprocate with 100 percent on gifts and to destroy even more wealth in a larger bonfire results in a loss of face and diminished "power" for the guest and his people.[9] The Pickupsticks site in interior Alaska, dating back approximately 1,000 years, provides archaeological evidence suggestive of potlatching ceremonies.[10]
References
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds., ; Aldona Jonaitis. Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch. University of Washington Press 1991. .; Chandonnet, "Alaska's Native Peoples", Arctic Circle Enterprises, 2013, p. 27; Seguin, Margaret (1986) "Understanding Tsimshian 'Potlatch. In: Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience, ed. by R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wils; Atleo, Richard. Tsawalk: A Nuu-chah-nulth en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clutesi, "Potlatch", The Morriss Printing Company, May 1969; Davidson, "Potlatch as Pedagogy", Portage and Main, 2018; Swanton, "Contributions to the Ethnologies of the Haida", EJ Brtill, Leiden, and GE Stechert, 1905 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Constitution of the Haida Nation", Council of the Haida Nation; "Haida Accord" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gadacz, "Potlatch" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Graeber, "Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The False Coin of our own Dreams", Palgrave, 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Barnett, "The Nature of the Potlatch", American Anthropologist, 1938, p. 349–358 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: National Archives, NA, vol. 3628, file 6244-1, 13 April 188[3]; Bracken, "The Potlach papers: A colonial case history", University of Chicago Press, December 8, 1997, p. 78 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kan, "Cohorts, Generations, and their Culture: The Tlingit Potlatch in the 1980s", Anthropos: International Review of Anthropology and Linguistics, 1989, p. 405–422 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dorothy O. Johansen, Empire of the Columbia: A History of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd ed., (New York: Harper & Row, 1967), pp. 7–8. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Potlatch" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Smith, "Ethnoarchaeology of the Middle Tanana Valley, Alaska", 2020 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Potlatch (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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