Ongka's Big Moka

Money— sweeter than honey but oh so destructive. It facilitates a man’s life, while a lack of it imprisons him in the streets of penury. It raises his social status, while an absence of it leaves him unnoticed. It gives him an aura of superiority and importance among others, while a deficiency of it makes him worthless in society’s eyes. Considering these two roads, most do not take more than a second to decide to chase riches.

The main idea of “The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea” is to provide the reader with an understanding of gender roles and the accumulation of gender specific wealth, as well as, how that wealth is used to further social and political agendas within society. It is important to note that the Trobrianders are a matrilineal society. This has a major effect on how wealth is accumulated and distributed and also serves to reinforce family ties.

Hr starts off by saying “We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us” What I think he means here is that the reason someone gives or loves is because that's what someone else has done that to them, so they pass it on. In the second line I believe he is saying that we can give more than what recieved. We can treat others better than how we were treated. He speaks in a way where when he says something, he also gives you the opposite of it to better show how giving has many meanings to it, just like the word love. He says,

This ensured people stayed modest and humble and never got ahead of themselves. An example of the value of equality being demonstrated lies in the principle that the owner of the arrow that killed an animal had the right to distribute meat from animal, and not the hunter himself who actually did the hard work. Another example would be the system of the unequal gift exchange: when one gifted something to someone, and in reciprocation received something, it might not necessarily be equivalent in value. Richard Lee, a famous anthropologist was told that the practice was aimed at leveling wealth, not accumulating it, which in turn had an important repercussion of establishing social relations. In stark contrast the Chumash made a glaring show of their individual prosperity and their inequality in economic and social status by publicly displaying their wealth as exemplified in their burials, clothing, houses, and the adornments on their heads and collars. They additionally leaned towards private accumulation rather than sharing and equality.

The anthropology of gifts is also crucial to economics. Entire businesses and industries rely on gift giving as it helps understand the relationships in economy as a cultural system that is not just

Give and Take is a book written by Adam Grant to describe his view of economic drivers and motivations through the lens of his theory of Give and Take. Economics is the study of how people make choices under scarcity and the results of these choices for society and Mr. Grant asserts that success isn’t just achieved by those who take it; but the majority of success goes to individuals who are willing to look out for others at their potential detriment. According to Grant, the perception of givers are often taken advantage, his research indicates that givers make up a majority of those at the top of the success ladder, even though they are more likely to “sacrifice their own interests to benefit others. Give and Take compares to economic theories like scarcity, cost/benefit analysis, equilibrium, and opportunity costs. To better understand the principles of economics through the lens of Give and Take, one must understand the concepts of Grant’s Give and Take as a description of day to day operations as they relate to well established economic theories.

Before the great transformation, no economy was subject to being a prisoner of the market (Polanyi 43). Polanyi discusses previous forms of economic organization that function effectively without the system of markets (43). It can be said that through the social being of man and his relationships, that he values material goods only as they serve to an end (Polanyi 46). Within Tribal communities, each member takes on the ideology towards noneconomic ends, that is, not connecting the means of production or distribution in significance with the ownership of goods (Polanyi 46). Members of the tribe place no desire upon economic interests of the individual, but rather on the collective. Reciprocity and redistribution are certain behaviours that communities maintain (Polanyi 47). Reciprocity, regards the sexual organization of society, and redistribution is functioning under a common chief representing domain and authority

I chose to do my research paper on the colorful and extraordinarily detailed mural titled “Dhrtarastra (Dharma King of the East Direction) with 16 Attendants” by Shashi Dhoj Tulachand. Shashi is also known as Guru Nawang Chhogyall Tenzin is a 69 year- old spiritual leader of the Chhairo gompa, a branch of Tibetan Buddhism from Tuksche, a remote village located in Mustang, Nepal's northernmost district, adjacent to Tibet. He is a master in Buddhist thangka painting who is committed to re-establishing the lost teaching tradition of Chhairo gompa. Shashi comes from a long line of Buddhist artists, his father Kamal Dhoj Tulachan, and grandfather were responsible for many wall paintings and statues to be found in gompas, chortens and private household shrines in the villages of the Thak Kola and the upper Kali Gandaki area.

Chapter one, “Fieldwork among the Maisin”, describes how anthropologist John Barker, author of Ancestral Lines, goes to Uiaku New Guinea to study the Maisin people. His specific goals were to study how a people can maintain a cultural identify in a modernizing world and how they can live without destroying their environment. Barker first arrived in New Guinea in 1982 where he examined “how the Maisin make a living, organize social interactions, conceptualize the spiritual world, and meet the opportunities and tragedies of life” (Barker 2016:2). He studied the tapa cloth, a fabric made from bark, that the Maisin use as a connection to their ancestral past and to help define their culture. Barker discovered that the Maisin have faith in traditional methods and do what they can to preserve that lifestyle. Barker‘s work went

In his article, Reciprocity and the Power of Giving, Lee Cronk discusses the different cultural meanings placed upon the act of gift giving. The act of exchanging of gifts has many unique implications, which are based on the culture of the giver and the recipient. Cronk discusses the idea of reciprocity, which is the expectance of exchange associated with gift giving. Cronk brings up the example of “Indian Gifts” which was a term that white settlers connected to the Native American people’s expectation of receiving an equivalent gift after being given one. This expectation is rooted into the culture of the Native American people, which was misunderstood by the settlers. The real implication of

The maxim "it's better to receive than to give" refers to the Machiavellian principle of gaining someone's support by having him or her perform an act. According to Matthews, "When you ask someone for help, you are implicitly asking people to place a bet on you. The more people you get to bet on you, the shorter your odds-and

A toddler contently plays with their doll or truck or even the piece of string he or she found on the floor. Another child enters with a shiny, new toy that costs the price of a golden ring. Something sparks within the child with the doll or truck: envy. The common vice takes the child as a host and destroys their life. Alain de Botton explains in his article “Equality, Expectation and Envy,” the cause of envy in a person’s life, especially people of America, and what can be done.

The step-by-step process of the potlatch was initiated by the “congregation of people who were formally invited to witness a demonstration of family prerogative of a host group comprised of kin or local residences” (Barnett 349). It was then stipulated that “only one person assumed the role of host and donor of gifts, and any members of his localized kinship group could voluntarily support him in the preparations of a potlatch in return for patronage favors” (Barnett 350). Following this stipulation “there was an unequal distribution of gifts which were presented according to rank of the receiver, and which reflected the donor's judgment of the recipient's social worth” (Barnett 354). Next the “potlatch allowed the donor to make a claim in his family name to certain distinctions and privileges. The recognition of these claims must come from the other members of society" (Barnett357); to which Barnett highlights “was the ultimate goal of the potlatch” (Barnett 357). Lastly, “although the gifts did provoke a reciprocal response, they should be viewed as true gifts and not as loans or capital investments; the ultimate aim was the distribution of wealth and not the accumulation of wealth”

An individual's feeling of inadequacy runs so deep that they end up feeling ashamed. Giving makes them feel out of control and threatened so they hold onto their love tightly because they don’t feel safe loosening up. Duke Orsino says “ Why should I not, had I the heart to do it, like to the Egyptian thief at point of death, kill what I love.- A savage jealousy” (Shakespeare page 219 113-115) Orsino relates this to the story of Thyamis and Chariclea/ Thyamis, a robber chief, kidnapped the princess Chariclea and retreated to a cave, where Robbers attacked. He tried to kill Chariclea so that his attackers couldn’t have her; however the cave filled with darkness, he killed another woman instead. And he says to Olivia that he should have done that to her. Another example is Orsino says to Olivia to listen to him. He will take Cesario from her and Cesario knows that Duke loves Olivia yet he’s about to take away Cesario to let Olivia feel how it hurts when you take something so precious away. “But hear me this: Since you to non regardance cast my faith, And that I partly know the instrument That screws me from my true place in your favor, Live you the marble-breasted tyrant still. But this your minion, whom I know you love, and whom, by heaven I swear, I tender dearly, him will I tear out of that cruel eye Where he sits crowned in his master’s spite. Come, boy, with me. My thoughts are ripe in mischief: I’ll sacrifice the lamb

Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money