Anthropological literature on economics has received much from Malinowski, who prepared certain classical monographs on the Argonauts of the western Pacific.
“One of his monographs is most famous and striking for describing one of the social institutions in the region, namely, the kula trade, which is a large-scale trade network in shell bracelets and necklaces.
Other aspects of the Trobrianders’ economy were subjected to great interest and wonder when Malinowski returned with his material from the islands after the First World War.
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He showed, contrary to widespread expectations, that ‘savages’ were by no means driven by lowly material needs in everything they did, that they had a sophisticated religion and that a complex kinship system and a multitude of regulated practices that upheld society and contributed to the fulfillment of far more needs than the purely biological ones.
In Argonauts Malinowski also argues against those who supposed that ‘savages’ were extremely ‘rational’ individuals who acted on pure self-interest.”
Malinowski has explained the kula method of exchange. There is a cyclical exchange of two kinds of valuables, viz., shell necklaces and shell bracelets. The trade initiated by Argonauts spreads over a large area of south-western Pacific.
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Eriksen has also provided a description of the kula exchange. “The necklaces circulate clockwise and the bracelets anti-clockwise.
The kula trade takes place both locally, within each island and between the islands. The most valuable objects travel furthest. The people who travel with the shell are agents or partners of powerful men, usually aristocrats, in the various islands.”