I.
SUMMARY OF IDEAS  Patterns and regularities observed in
Chapter 5: Reciprocity
According to Marcel Mauss, gift-
giving is essential to social integration. It is
an obligation rather than voluntary. It has 3
elements: giving, receiving, and
reciprocating.
F. Boas’ Potlatch
 Potlatch promotes competition rather
than social integration
B. Malinowski’s Kula Trade
 Kula is a regional (tribal) trade that
requires maritime expedition in
Melanesia.
 Participation is exclusive to powerful
men because the kula is extravagant.
K. Polanyi’s Three Principles of Societies’
Economic Integration
 Reciprocity, immediate exchange of
valuables; barter
 Redistribution, works the same way
taxes work
 Market Principle, goods and labor can
be bought and sold
M. Sahlins’ Three forms of Reciprocity
 Balanced reciprocity, each gift needs
to be reciprocated
 Generalized reciprocity, gifts do not
explicitly demand to be reciprocated
but it is a general rule to give back
 Negative reciprocity, participants
devise ways to trick each other
P. Bourdieu’s Symbolic Power
 One can refuse to obey a rule if he has
power or his status in the society is
higher than others.
D. Graeber: Reciprocity as an exception
 Failure in gift-exchange may result to
debts while people who continue to
participate in this practice are
exempted in the consequences of not
participating.
C. Levi-Strauss’ View on Reciprocity
culture must be formalized.
A. Weiner: Inalienable Possessions
 There are things that cannot be
transferred because these things have
hau in it and some possessions are
passing on only to the members of the
family.
S. Harrison’s Identity of the Inalienable
 A group’s hau is an inalienable
possession.
L., P. Bohannan’s Modern Market Principle
 What money can buy had a clear
boundary when traditional people in
Central Nigeria, as observed by the
Bohannans, were colonized.
M. Lien’s Food and Exchange
 Economy and modern monetary
economies can co-exist in a place.
R. Døving on Hospitality
 He went to Norway and found out that
people there would do everything to
make their visitor accept drinks other
than tap water.
D. Miller: Consumption and Relationships
 Consumption is not simply buying
things; it is done with consideration to
others.
Chapter 6: Kinship
Kinship emerges from descent and
marriage. Descent can be unilineal or
bilateral. Family is people under the same
roof and sharing food; usually related through
kinship. There are three types of family:
minimal, nuclear, and extended.
L. H. Morgan and E.B Tylor
 Kinship is ethnocentric and
biologistic
 Traditional society is organized on
basis of kinship and descent.
L. Holy
 Kinship is could be claimed by
anthropology as its own.
L. H. Morgan
 Classificatory and descriptive kinship
(lineal and collateral kin).
JB Bachofen
 Societies evolved from matrilineal to
patrilineal descent.
M. Fortes and E.E. Evans-Pritchard
 African societies divided into three:
small bands, chiefdom and kingdom,
and segmentary lineage societies.
F. Barth
 Patrilineal System - men prefers
remote relatives over near relatives.
A. Richards
 It is impossible to find basis for
models ongoing social life because
people acts in different bases.
M. Gluckman
 Groups serve as conflict integration
and mitigation.
J. Barnes
 Kinship is important for local
organizations
F. de Saussure and R. Jakobson
 Linguistics: distinguishing langue
(language as a system) from parole
(speech).
C. Lévi-Strauss
 Rules to regulate marriage practices:
prescription and preferential
 Marriage in traditional societies is a
form of long-term reciprocity enacted
to form stable alliance.
E. Leach and R. Needham
 Marriage can't have a universal
definition because it varies cross-
culturally.
Biology to Kinship
 Subjective: Notions connected to
practice (pater est = social father;
genitor = biological father)
 Objective: Kin selection is a principle
where individuals tend to have a
nepotic attitude which has something
to do with biological composition of
an individual.
S. Howell
 Kinning as trance of children from
adopted going to being a members of
the group
J. Carsten
 Kinship is somehow the relatedness
one felt to someone.
M. Daly and M. Wilson
 Stepfathers tend to treat their children
in an ill-manner when they are not
genetic attached to the child.
D. Schneider and M. Strathern
 Ethnic minorities have something to
do with the role of family in an
individual.
II. ANSWER TO QUESTIONS OF
IDEAS OF CULTURE
1. To what extent can individuals ever truly
generate their own opinions or behaviors?
Are we so conditioned by society that we can
only view things according to what we have
been taught?
 I think people can only generate their
own behavior during infancy. In
psychology, we have this native and
acquire traits. A baby cries out of
hunger, breathes, and moves without
being taught —these are native traits,
behavior need not to be taught
because it is innate to all human being
(Schaaf, 1943). But responses to
stimuli begin such as how an
individual perceive things is shaped
by culture (Burton, 2007). His
choices, decisions, actions are now
affected by the culture he has. People,
especially from the younger age range
tend to adapt and develop certain
behavioral patterns and cultural
insights from the society that they are
exposed with. But of course, as we get
 older, we tend to be more open to new
ideas, to change, however, we do still
cope with trends and what's more
"acceptable" in general rather than
adapting what's more "acceptable" in
a particular society. In easier terms,
we tend to inculcate views that are
generally accepted.
2. Where do we draw the line between one’s
actions due to “culture” and actions due to
“personality”? Is it possible to draw a distinct
dichotomy between culture and personality?
 Culture is the totality of beliefs and
practices shared by the member of
society. While personality is the
pattern of one’s behavior. Individuals
may share a common culture, but
pattern of behavior varies from
person to person.
3. Is it possible for one to “unlearn” his or her
culture in order to objectively analyze it? Or
does analysis have to be done by an outsider,
someone to whom the culture is new?
 No. As said by Geerts, it is impossible
for a human being to be cultureless.
One needs culture to survive and man
does not have innate ways to do it
unless he learns from his own or
others' experience. And since this
happens, one's view on his culture is
influenced by what is enculturated to
him, making him vulnerable to his
biases. That is why an outsider's
intervention is needed so that the
observation is free from a native's
biases. The culture may not be
interpreted the way the natives see but
it is freer from romanticism.
4. Wallace studied the development of radical
social movements and dramatic changes in
society. Do all radical changes occur after, or
could they occur during “normal” times?
 Radical changes can occur after crises
and normal times. But it leans more
on the former since solutions are often
made up after a problem, it is more
likely that radical changes happen
after crises rather than during normal
times.

References:

Eriksen, T.H. (2017) What is anthropology?. London, UK: Pluto Press

Schaaf, W.L. (1943) High school subjects self-taught. Chicago, US: JG. Ferguson Publishing
Company

Burton, K.W. (2007). Cultural experience affects perception. Retrieved from

http://www.dana.org/Publications/Brainwork/Details.aspx?id=43697