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Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping-While Giving - Couverture souple

Weiner, Annette B. B.

 
9780520076044: Inalienable Possessions: The Paradox of Keeping-While Giving
Couverture souple
ISBN 10 : 0520076044 ISBN 13 : 9780520076044
Editeur : University of California Press, 1992

Synopsis

Inalienable Possessions tests anthropology's traditional assumptions about kinship, economics, power, and gender in an exciting challenge to accepted theories of reciprocity and marriage exchange. Focusing on Oceania societies from Polynesia to Papua New Guinea and including Australian Aborigine groups, Annette Weiner investigates the category of possessions that must not be given or, if they are circulated, must return finally to the giver. Reciprocity, she says, is only the superficial aspect of exchange, which overlays much more politically powerful strategies of "keeping-while-giving."

The idea of keeping-while-giving places women at the heart of the political process, however much that process may vary in different societies, for women possess a wealth of their own that gives them power. Power is intimately involved in cultural reproduction, and Weiner describes the location of power in each society, showing how the degree of control over the production and distribution of cloth wealth coincides with women's rank and the development of hierarchy in the community. Other inalienable possessions, whether material objects, landed property, ancestral myths, or sacred knowledge, bestow social identity and rank as well. Calling attention to their presence in Western history, Weiner points out that her formulations are not limited to Oceania. The paradox of keeping-while-giving is a concept certain to influence future developments in ethnography and the theoretical study of gender and exchange.

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À propos de l'auteur

Annette B. Weiner is Kriser Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University. She currently serves as President of the American Anthropological Association.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
University of California Press
Date d'édition
1992
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0520076044
ISBN 13 
9780520076044
Reliure
Broché
Nombre de pages
264
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible