Bronislaw Malinowski, written 11/13/1998
The Kula is, in the most simple explanation, an extensive, intertribal system of trade in the Trobriand and neighbor islands in New Guinea, along which are traded soulava and mwali. The soulava, long strings of red shells, move clockwise while the mwali, bracelets of white shells, move in the opposite direction. One is traded for another (that is, a man in the Kula ring can never trade a bracelet for a bracelet, but only for a necklace). Each Kula piece has its own name and history, and whoever possesses it is entitled to display it and tell how he obtained it, to whom he shall give it, its history, and basically brag that he has it.
These objects are not owned because they have any use. The real purpose in owning them is to own them, possession for the sake of possession. The temporary ownership of the vaygu’a (valuables) brings with it social renown and a bit of limelight when one has more important pieces. The Kula is not a spontaneous trade, never done under pressure of needs (because the items are not practically useful). There are well-defined, fixed dates, routes, and rules which must be adhered to. Several basic rules apply in the Kula trade ring:
1. The Kula trade occurs only between men who are partners. The higher rank you are in society, the wealthier and more important you are, the more partners you will have, and this is known inductively (pg 163, ‘a man would naturally know to what number of partners he was entitled by his rank and position’). Partnerships are lifelong relationships wherein the two men act as friends, as exchange other smaller gifts occasionally. The upkeep on the relationship between partners varies by the distance between them, similarity of social status, etc.;
2. The vaygu’a must obey the rules of geographical direction (soulava may only move clockwise, and mwali only counterclockwise);
3. Kula items may not go back;
4. Kula items may never stop (with very, very few exceptions. It must be a very special and usually very old piece to be taken out of circulation);
5. It is rude, stingy, to keep a piece for longer than a year or two, or to take longer than that to reciprocate a Kula gift.
The Kula also must be repaid by an equivalent counterpart, which value is determined by the giver thereof. These rules are not enforced in any tangible way, but by a moral code of rules, social pressure, and a moral injunction from society. It is good to be generous, and if one wants to look good, one tries to be the best in the Kula ring: reciprocate gifts the fastest, give valuable gifts, bring back lots of secondary trade on far-flung Kula expeditions, have the most partners, etc.
There are several associated aspects of the Kula ring. On large expeditions to further-off islands, activities such as canoe building, fixing of dates and places, organizing men to go on the expedition, what to take along as barter, etc, take place. Once there, much secondary trade, gimwali (barter), goes on: blankets, foods, utilitarian items, much of which are unavailable at home, are traded for. Sometimes to be involved in this larger secondary trade, some minor trading expeditions for goods in demand must go on beforehand. The gimwali is a different class of trade than the Kula, which is more formal, decorous, and diginified.
The Kula can be seen as a big men’s club, and serves the same purposes as men’s clubs and schools did in the 1800s in England: networking both financially and socially, social aggrandizement, a status tool for prestige. Malinowski compares it to the crown jewels of Scotland, but says that the main difference is permanent possession (the jewels being permanently possessed while the Kula objects are not). One could argue that the crown jewels are not permanently owned either, if you see them from the perspective of the jewels’ lifetime and not each owner’s. The Kula is also a diplomatic institution, as it transcends race, culture, and language, rather like the United Nations. Malinowski even calls it a ‘big inter-tribal institution’, which, although they probably wouldn’t like to hear it, is basically what the UN is. The Kula is also an economic activity, because it is concerned with the exchange of wealth. In addition, since normal trade is used up, but the Kula keeps going round the ring, it acts as a permanent trade network to retain economic ties.