twisting the gift: translating precolonial into colonial exchanges in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

In this article I reexamine the relationship between gift giving and hierarchy using data about early-20th-century colonial contacts in western Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dutch colonial officials and European missionaries disrupted prior community and regional exchange patterns and initiated strat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American ethnologist 1996-02, Vol.23 (1), p.43-60
Main Author: ARAGON, LORRAINE V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asia
Christian missionaries
Christianity
Churches
Colonialism
Commodities
Cultural relations
Economics
Ethnology
Exchange
Exchange circuits, markets, money
Gift
Gift giving
Gifts
Hierarchy
Highlands
Indonesia
Lowlands
Missionaries
Morphological source materials
Protestantism
Ritual exchange
Social life & customs
Sulawesi
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Description
Summary:In this article I reexamine the relationship between gift giving and hierarchy using data about early-20th-century colonial contacts in western Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dutch colonial officials and European missionaries disrupted prior community and regional exchange patterns and initiated strategic policies of asymmetric interethnic gift giving that elevated European missionaries and officials as political and spiritual sources of power. [gift exchange, Indonesia, political hierarchy, religious offerings, colonialism, missionaries, Protestant conversion]
ISSN:0094-0496
1548-1425
DOI:10.1525/ae.1996.23.1.02a00030