Unravel the underlying principles in moka-exchange, and in the bridewealth-exchange amongst the Nuer of Southern Sudan, in the light of the French sociologist Marcel Mauss' theory of the 'Form and reason for exchange in archaic societies.'

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 3 essays on Social Theory that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

Name: Ann-Mari Pynnonen, Level 1 anthropology essay: grade A-.

One is confronted with an astonishing view, when watching a film about the Kawelka tribe of the Mt. Hagen area, in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The scene seems chaotic: A lot of people are running around and shouting. In the middle of the crowd are many pigs in a line, tied on sticks, and more pigs are brought in. People are dressed up in paradise feathers, they are wearing headdresses and a lot of jewellery. Their faces are completely painted. These colourful decorations make the people look almost unrecognisable or inhuman. The noise becomes extremely loud as the drumming and chanting of the dancing crowd gets mixed up with the high screams of the frightened pigs, and the shouting of the people. At first glance this hectic social event seems difficult to interpret: 'What is going on?' But all the glory of the moment begins to make sense, when one knows that small moka-exchange ceremony is taking place, in which pigs are brought together, in order to reciprocate eventually the big moka to another tribe, which consists of hundreds of pigs (Strathern & Nairn, 1974:The Kawelka: Ongka's