My Christmas Report on Primitive Money
Anthony Sealy
March 2002
A Really General Introduction
Being that this is the first of this sort of thing that I have
done, I'll admit to being a little unsure of how exactly to go
about it. As a student, my primary aim has always been to write an
essay, to make a specific and hopefully original point in my
writing. Given, however, that my present occupation is as a RA,
and not as a student, I suspect that I ought to be going about what
I am doing in a somewhat different manner. The beginnings of what
I have done are similar; I have gone to the library, found a number
of books and articles relevant to the topic of discussion, and done
as much reading as I suspect is useful, and then gone back and done
it twice more. However my presentation of what I have found will
be rather different. What I am going to try to do is not to present
some point in particular, but instead to present a wholistic survey of
what I have found, including both what I believe to be useful, and that
which is less useful. I have, of course, focussed my energies upon what
I believe to be most useful, and will present that material in greater
detail, but what I want to do is present a general report to you so that
you can decide what is of the most significance, and where you (or I if
you believe that what I have done is still insufficient for you to
continue with what I have began) can further the study if you believe it
will be fruitful. I will make some preliminary comments about what I
think regarding the material, but this will be of secondary importance.
My primary aim will be to tell you what I have found, and let you use
your much more able cerebral abilities to figure out the significance.
Of every piece of writing mentioned, I have either the article
photocopied or the book on loan until the end of April, at your
disposal.
Most generally, I have focussed my study upon the concept of
'primitive money'. The exact meaning of this term is somewhat
unclear, at least to me, since exactly what makes primitive money
'primitive' seems at the outset to beg the question. If primitive
money is indeed money, why is it primitive, and not just money?
What I believe to be a wholly unsatisfactory answer is that
primitive money is any sort of money that was 'introduced' prior to
the advent of coinage. Why coined currency is in any relevant
sense more advanced that other sorts of currency is a question to
which I have no answer, but I am busy thinking again, and I
promised in the preceding paragraph not to. At any rate, I am
hopeful that this will serve us as useful, if not altogether
satisfactory, definition of the concept of primitive money.
More specifically, I have been interested in the idea of
'fiat' primitive money. Coined currency, for the most part in
human history, has been commodity money, the value of the coin
being the use value of the metal in the coin, with the function of
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coinage being merely to provide a standardized measure of the
metal. There have, however, been some instances of 'token'
coinage, the most famous being Chinese knife money; but in all of
these cases, they have been issued by largish governments (China,
Macedonia, Persia and Greece), so I am more than sure it can be
demonstrated that your hypothesis is correct, that they were
accepted for payment of taxes. Modern paper money is, of course,
fiat money also, and it too is also accepted for purposes of
taxation. Your question, as I take it, is whether there has every
been any sort of 'fiat', i.e. some non-commodity primitive money
that has not been accepted for payment of taxes.
Something that I want to draw attention to at the outset is to
some general trends in the anthropological literature that I have
surveyed. One in particular may be of particular interest to you,
and if not, then at least of sufficiently noteworthiness that I
think you should at least have a think about, that being the
'Polanyi school' of economic anthropology. The general idea goes
something like this. When approaching primitive economies and
monetary systems, economists generally tend to try to take the
typical modern economic structure and impose that upon these
primitive communities without paying enough attention to how the
structure of these communities differ from ours. They view
primitive communities through the eyes of Western culture, without
trying to understand how the primitive communities see themselves,
and thus fail to grasp the essence of what is actually going on in
these communities. They merely assume that primitive economies are
smaller versions of our Western economies, and thus fail to
understand significant differences between the two economic
structures. They might, for example, argue that your theory
regarding taxation suffers from a Westernized perspective, because
you fail to understand that many of these cultures do not have what
is analogous to our system of taxation.
For a more detailed account see, George Dalton, 'Primitive Money',
in American Anthropologist (Feb 1965). Dalton was a student of
Polanyi at Columbia.
Right, right, a bunch of post-modern gibberish, but how is
this particularly relevant to your thesis? Well, anthropologists
of this variety (and they are numerous) assert that most forms of
primitive money are not actually money in our Western sense. Goods
in a Western society are demarcated in specific values of our
currency; a can of corn costs 99 cents, a pair of Nike Jordan Airs
costs $199.99. But goods in primitive societies are not demarcated
in the same way. Each good on the island of Yap does not have some
particular equivalent in Yapese stone money. Western money is
'general purpose' money; it functions as a means of exchange, a
mode of payment, and a standard of value. Primitive money is
'special-purpose' money; it serves only one or two of these
functions, but never the third. Hence assuming that primitive
monetary systems function in the same way as our Western system
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fails to appreciate this basic distinction.
Economics textbooks (e.g. Samuelson and Reynolds) err in
citing primitive monies indiscriminately as equivalents
of Western media of (commercial) exchange [...]. By
giving the impression that all primitive monies perform
the same primary function as dollars, they quite wrongly
imply that all primitive economies may be regarded as
crude market systems. (Dalton, 60)
Not everything on the island of Yap can be bought with Yapese stone
money. They are used for specific social purposes each with particular
social significance, and are not used to buy corn or shoes.
A result of the popularity of this critique is that
anthropology appears to have become a hotbed of Marxism. I will
admit that I am about to be a little more liberal than perhaps I
ought to be with my summarizing here, but it this seems to be the
general point of the Marxists : the money of primitive communities
often serves a special function that Western money does not serve;
it is a good itself with intrinsic prestige value. Primitive
communities are replete with conspicuous displays of wealth.
What I Think
The first difficulty I encountered was to figure out exactly
what constituted non-commodity primitive money. The textbook you
provided me offered some clues, offering for examples both shell
money in general and the stone currency of Yap. I went about
researching this in earnest for quite some time until it struck me,
rather recently, that the whole idea is little bit absurd. It
seems to me that ALL primitive money, at some time or another, must
have been commodity money. It must have been useful for some thing
at some time.
However, it is clear that at some time, the value of the money
began to exceed its use value, i.e. its value as a commodity. What
began as being valued as an ornament began to be generally
exchanged as an ornament, then became valuable because it could be
exchanged and then began to be stored because it could be
exchanged; the use value of ornamentation sometimes disappeared,
but the exchange value, and hence the prestige value of owning the
particular hunk of stone or polished shell remained.
How does your 'taxation' thesis pan out? Incredibly poorly,
to tell the truth. In almost all cases, taxes have been collected
in kind; sometimes fixed as some particular local staple (some of
which have included copra (the dried flesh of coconuts), gold dust,
mulberries, oxen and cows, livestock, pepper, skins and cloth,
textiles, grains, and sugar), but as likely just as some sort of
hodgepodge of goods that had to be turned in. I do not have a good
thesis why there should be apparently NO coincidence between the
collection of taxes and the existence of primitive fiat money, but
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it appears that this is the case.
One thing, however, did become apparent as I did my research,
and my clever little Political Scientifically trained brain
instantly (more or less) recognized the equivalence between
taxation and collected social or political fines. As I have and
you shall discover, almost every form of primitive fiat money that
I investigate could be used as some sort of politically recognized
sanctioned means of social redemption, be it for the payment of
blood money, fines for adultery, theft, etc. It is also used
extensively, if not universally, as a means of bride payment,
although this is not nearly as related. Regardless, I claim to
have found the underpinning that you were looking for, and most
extensively at that. Where I have not found it, I remain convinced
that I could. Every time I made a sufficiently determined effort,
I was rewarded with sufficiently detailed material to support the
hypothesis.
I also think that the additional function of money described
by the Marxists, money as a prestige instrument, is particularly
interesting, and probably quite easily defendable. Another point
to make : most of this money takes considerable effort to produce
or acquire. Hence smaller amounts become relatively more valuable,
thus not necessitating a very small supply. Some things I noted
mentally, but not always physically.
The only problem I can see with your hypothesis is that I
think you need to establish the direction of causation. I'm now
certain that we can demonstrate (have demonstrated) correlation,
but is that enough? Isn't the counter-claim simply going to be
that these forms of primitive money were accepted as payment for
fines, blood-money, etc. because they were money (i.e. valuable),
and not that they were money (i.e. valuable) because they were
accepted as payment for fines, blood-money, etc? Sure, you've got
a model that explains why you think this is the case, but I still
sort of see it as problematic.
At any rate, your problem, not mine. I'm just finding the
facts. You have to do the thinking, Herr professor.
Something to Consider
This warning should, however, be noted. The frequent
statements that shells, rings, teeth, mats and feathers
were used as money in Oceania, and their inclusion in
currency collections, are explained by the fact that
after the coming of whites, traders and natives adapted
the articles used in gift-exchange, in payment for
services rendered, in marriage-payments and in fines, for
secular and commercial transactions ; these articles
cannot properly be called 'primitive money', though their
use illustrates a stage in the history of its
development. (Quiggin 119)
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Primary Evidence
Paul Einzig, Primitive Money (1949).
A phenomenally useful book, unfortunately one of the last I
found. I suspect that a thorough reading would make me quite an
authority on the subject, and further suspect that a number of
authors of other pieces I will discuss should have taken the time.
This book, written by an anthropologist, attempts to document every
existence type of primitive money known. It breaks the topic down
into ethnological, historical, and theoretical sections. The
ethnological section is subdivided into continents, and includes in
the lists of primitive currencies the following :
mats, teeth and tusks, rats, stones (from Yap), beads,
pigs, feathers, shells, yams, rice, drums, bronze, bees
wax, buffaloes, cattle, cauldrons, axes, jars, tin, gold
dust, silver, lead, tea, coconuts, grain, reindeer,
tamarind seeds, camels, iron, salt, calico (cotton
cloth), slaves, brass, fur, alcohol, wampum, cocoa,
maize, arrows and guns.
From this we will make a primary list of the apparently fiat
currencies : teeth and tusks, stones, beads, feathers, and shells.
At the outset it is interesting to note that five of the six have
some use value as ornaments, all except the stone money of Yap.
These six are the ones we will focus upon.
A. Hingston Quiggin, A Survey of Primitive Money (1949).
Another anthropologist with another useful book. Not as well
organized as Einzig, and so I used it more as a supplementary
text, but does essentially the same job and fills in a lot of the
gaps. I did most of my work going from the index, looking up the
aforementioned six different kinds of apparently fiat primitive
currency.
Teeth and Tusks
Teeth and tusks have been used as primitive currency primarily
in Oceania. Although he does give a detailed account of how the
teeth are organized and traded in Oceania, Quiggin does not do a
particularly good job of explaining the uses of tooth money,
telling us only that they are 'used freely for ornamentation',
(126-8). However, he does tell us that in Bougainville and Buka
teeth are not frequently used in ordinary trading, but instead for
marriage payments and compensation for wrongs (24). Einzing tells
us that in the Solomons, dog, porpoise, and bat teeth are used
extensively and have relatively fixed exchange values. These teeth
are used extensively in the payment of fines, the ceremonial
purchase of wives and pigs, and after the arrival of white traders,
began to circulate more widely as currency, even being accepted by
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the white traders themselves. In Fiji, the teeth of Sperm whales
are used primarily as bride money and blood money (Einzing, 32).
But Fijians seem to hold these teeth in as intrinsically valuable,
and probably are perhaps best understood as being a form of
commodity money.
Einzing (79) also tells us that both dogs' teeth
and boars' tusks are used in New Guinea, but fails to mention what
for. Luckily Quiggin tells us that the tusks are 'essential in
bride-price, in fines and compensations, and in death ceremonies'
(126), and since Einzing tells us that the two can be exchanged at
relatively constant rates, presumably so too are dogs' teeth, if
only indirectly.
The use of tooth money also occurs in the rather strange
'economic' system on the Admiralty Islands. Einzing tells us that
there, tooth money is used as a standard of deferred payment, as a
means for exchanges arranged in connection with marriages, and in
connection with religious rites (65). But the economic system
there is sufficiently complex that I think it best that you either
read the couple of pages on it, or I have a chat with you.
Everybody is honest and money exists to create artificial
obligations so that people are ethically obliged to produce. It
doesn't really fit into the rubric of any sort of economic system
that I am accustomed to.
The only mention of the use of teeth as currency outside of
Oceania is a brief paragraph in Quiggin, in association with the
Crow native peoples' tribe of North America. For the Crow, Elk
teeth are used in ornamental display : 'the larger the number [of
Elk teeth] displayed, the greater indication of a man's prowess in
hunting, his wealth and importance' (Quiggin, 310). He also
mentions that they can be exchanged for purchases, but the brevity
with which he describes them and the conspicuous absence of their
mention in Einzing leads me to believe that they are merely
commodities, and not money in any significant sense.
Feathers
Feathers have played the role of primitive money is a
particularly limited area; Quiggin suggests exclusively on the Banks
Islands and Santa Cruz (119). He quotes Codrington who tells us
that they were used as ornamentation, and although he suggests that
they were 'used more for prestige than trading', they were also
used for the purchase of large objects, for marriage payments, and
for fines for fornication. Einzing generally agrees, saying that
they were used as medium of exchange for large objects, and were
known to serve as a means for special payments such as ransoms,
fines and blood money (52).
Beads and Wampum
Quiggins begins his discussion of beads with the African
'aggry'. The origin of this peculiar specimen is quite completely
unknown, and Quiggins treats us to a quite lengthy discussion of
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exactly how complicated the entire subject actually is. Some of
them evidently date back at least over 2000 years ago, and most
likely a good deal earlier. Herodotus, the first historian from
ancient Greece, notes that the Phonecians traded beads with
Africans some time in the seventh century B.C., which probably
originated from the Egyptians, but artifacts have been found in
pre-Columbian graves in North America, so who the heck can explain
that? At any rate, even though they were for a short time used by
white traders, who purchased them in North Africa for less than
they could be sold for on the Gold Coast in middle Africa, they
appear to be more like mystical charms than anything else, and
don't really seem to qualify as money.
Einzing, on the other hand, gives some quite useful
descriptions of bead currency. The first is on the Pelew Islands,
where a rather intricate system has developed. There, there are
seven main different types of beads, each with an indefinite number
of sub-categories. This money is believed to be of foreign origin
(Quiggin cites claims that some are of the same origin as the
African aggry (42)) and so the quantity of currency is fixed, as
are prices. It is used extensively as a standard of deferred
payments, for weddings, and for fines. Fines are fixed in terms of
the various types of offences, and any offence, be it political,
social of religious, can be paid in beads. Fines are the principle
revenue of the chiefs on Pelew (Einzing, 41-3).
Another interesting use of bead money is a definite token
system that has developed in the bazaars of Africa. Again, Einzig
provides the useful discussion. While livestock is the generally
accepted social standard of value and means of exchange, it is not
a particularly practical one. Hence, with the arrival of European
and Arab traders came a more practical temporary means of exchange.
At the beginning of the market, beads are sold to those wishing to
make purchases, and at the close of the market they are repurchased from the merchants who have collected them.
Unsurprisingly, this has proved to be a particularly unstable
mechanism (Einzing, 119-21).
The final discussion of the use of beads is a transition
between this and the ensuing section; the use of shell beads as
money. Whether this discussion ought to be included here or within
the discussion of shells is rather unclear. Anyway. Shell beads
have been used particularly by native peoples in the eastern
woodlands of North America, the Algonquin and the Iroqois, to make
wampum belts. Due to their spiritual and sentimental value, the
belts themselves could not be traded as currency once they were
assembled, but the beads used in their construction could be
(Einzig, 165-6). Besides their use as a means of exchange, wampum
beads could be used for ceremonial presentations, fines and
compensation, blood money, for conveying messages and recording
tribal history (although I think that was the function of the belts
and not the beads themselves) and for ornamental value (Quiggin,
305).
Quiggins also has a brief paragraph discussing 'gold-money'
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cylindrical beads of the Pomo tribes (298), and introduces but
fails to elaborate upon the shell, stone, and clay beads of the
Aztecs (293). I'll try to look into this.
During my tertiary research I did try to look into this, but
without too much success. One book that appeared as if it might
have been particularly useful was H. H. Bancroft's 'The Native
Races of the Pacific States of North America' (1875). Presumably
due to the age of the book, it no longer seems to be available in
any form other than microfiche, save a few scanned pages on the
internet. If you are interested, I'm more than happy to go about
fiddling with microfiche, but since it rather time-consuming,
I'll leave that for you to decide. His book comes in five
different volumes, and would probably be valuable in researching
not only the bead monies of the Pomo and the Aztec tribes, but also
a number of the shell currencies of Native American tribes which we
shall next consider.
Pop 304 - beads
161 - Bastudo (South Africa) used special beads of coral for the
purposes of blood money and tribute E 161
Lots and Lots of Shells
The problem with this section is that the number of different
primitive tribes or peoples to use shells as a primitive currency
appears to verge on being innumerable. While previous to this
undertaking, I was accustomed to thinking of gold as the most
generally appreciated form of currency, I was surprised to find
that the use of gold as currency is a primarily Western concept;
even the Incas, famed for filling the coffers of the Monarch of
Spain with more gold than the world could have believed to exist,
did not regard gold as currency. Although it has gradually been
adopted by the rest of the world, in their primitive origins the
greater part of the world seems to have used shells as their
initial currency. Indeed one particular type of shell, the cowry,
appears to have been used at one time or another in areas as
diverse as Africa, Oceania, India, China, and has even been found
in graves in Europe. Since my world geography is one or two steps
from perfection, the organization of this section is a little
suspect, let me repeat myself again; more time would provide a
greater degree of certainty. Let us begin with something I know a
little bit about :
The Americas
Unfortunately, I haven't come across a great supply of
information about South America, although I have no doubt that it
must exist. However, the information on North America is
relatively more thorough. As just mentioned in the previous
section, the wampum beads (made from shell) were the primary
monetary instrument of the Eastern Canadian tribes. In the west,
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the currency was also predominated by shell. Quiggin writes of the
Yurok, a tribe centered in Northern California, that every injury
and offence can be valued in terms of shell money. He also tells
us that 'among the Shasta, injuries of all sorts, from loss of
property and petty theft, to murder and killing in avowed warfare,
were settled by the payment of shell money' (296). He indicates
that two other additional tribes in the area used shell money, the
Pomo and the Chumash, who used disks made from clam shells as
currency, but does not go on to discuss the ways in which the money
was used.
Einzig does the same of the Nootka; just indicates that they
used shell money, but says no more. He does, however, tell us
generally that 'shell money was used to a large extent by the
maritime tribes of British Columbia for payment of fines and blood
money', and more specifically that 'among the Haida murder was
settled with relatives of the victim by payment of large sums of
shell money, and that 'among the Karok, outraged husbands were
placated with shell money at about the rate that would be paid for
murder. Bride money was also paid in the form of shell money.'
(Einzing, 166)
Africa
As previously mentioned, the cowry has been used extensively
throughout the world, but became particularly prevalent in Africa
through their introduction by Arab traders into eastern Africa, and
later by white traders into western Africa. Cowries had previously
existed in Africa before the arrival of large quantities from
foreign traders, but functioned as much as valuables than an actual
medium of exchange. However, due to their early introduction,
there is limited historical evidence about their particular use.
They were obviously used as a medium of exchange at one time or
another throughout Africa, and both Einzig and Quiggin make
numerous statements of the form 'in so and so a place at such and
such a time, this article would cost that many cowries'.
As for useful evidence, however, there is not a whole lot to
speak of. Einzig discusses the problem of the importation of vast
amounts of cowries into the former French Sudan (132-4), but does
not discuss many of their uses. He does, however, explain that in
1901, cowries were no longer accepted as a means of paying taxes in
Uganda, implying that they had been accepted previously (124). He
tells us that they were used as bride-payment, certain traditional
gifts and payments, and fees for membership and promotion in secret
societies in Nigeria. Finally, he suggests that they were
introduced into Angola from the Congo, where they were reportedly
of no value except in trade with other Africans. This appears
strange given the fact that Quiggin reports that they were used
extensively in the Congo, where 'some 6000 to 7000 [cowries] might
have been paid to an injured husband if adultery is proved, and
fines for murder or suicide ran into higher figures' (34). Quiggin
also tells us that shell money was used for bride-price and fines
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in East Africa, Kenya and Northern Rhodesia (50), but little else
in a albeit colourful five-page description of the use of cowries
in Africa. However, given the breadth to which it can be used and
apparently positive signs, I would tentatively suggest that shell
money must have been widely accepted by the government, particularly
considering the vast quantities that the native governing
authorities often amassed.
Oceania - Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia
Oceania is the area from which the most detailed and accurate
information can be found. This seems to be the case primarily
because of the lateness with which our interactions there have
transpired; new areas were being contacted up until the 1950s.
Oceania is normally partitioned into three different areas;
Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Polynesia is characterized
by primarily communistic tribes which had little use for money
properly. However Melanesia, and to a lesser degree Micronesia,
had a much more individualistic conception and a greater degree of
private property. It is interesting to note that the Polynesians
are generally regarded as being far more advanced that either of
their neighbours (Quiggin, 109).
i)
In and Around New Guinea
In his discussion of New Guinea, Einzig again speaks in
general terms, telling us that 'in most communities in and around
New Guinea, shell money is used extensively for the payment of
bride-price, for the purchase of pigs, and various ceremonial and
other unilateral payments (Einzig, 77). It is likely that these
unilateral payments include the payments for fines, but it is not
explicitly stated. He discusses one section of New Guinea, in the
interior along the Diak river, where shells appear to be more like
valuables than a form of money; 10 cowries were considered a
fortune. It seems that for some time after the arrival of white
traders the cowries began to serve temporarily as money, but when
vast amounts appeared, the natives quickly lost interest (78). In
the Trobriand Islands, just to the east of New Guinea, the use of
shells was very limited for everyday transactions, but they were
sometimes used by chiefs as a reward for services or as ceremonial
payments and bride payments (69-70). Einzig also notes that many
areas in New Guinea have not yet reached the stage of systematic
barter, let alone established a systematic currency (77).
Einzig does discuss one area called Kapauku, where cowries
served as 'a medium of exchange, standard of value, store of value,
standard of deferred payment, and means of non-commercial payment'
(Einzing, 81). Again, he does not explicitly state what this noncommerical payments are made for. Luckily, in his book entitled
The Kapauku Papuan Economy (1963), Leopold Pospisil explains that
'in Kapauku, the cowry shell and necklace can be used as payments for
food, crops, land, artifacts, wages, rents, pride price, and 'damages
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in the form of blood money or legal fines' (at 301).
ii)
Micronesia
Both Einzig and Quiggin discuss the area of Micronesia,
suggesting that shells have been used in Kusaie, Truk, Yap, the
Marianas, and on the Pelew, Ellice, Mortlock, Gilbert, and Marshall
Islands (Einzig, 45; Quiggins, 137-44). Although they both provide
lengthy discussions, and indicate that shell money has been used
at one place or another, as bride money, blood money, payment of
services, purchase of land, and payments for victors after war, as
well as constructed into fishhooks that are often, but not always
serviceable (Quiggin, 137-44), there is no sustained pointed
discussion, and both admit that much of the information about this
area is suspect and highly contentious. The only particularly
dependable information about this area is related either to the
bead money of the Pelews discussed in the preceding section, or the
shell and stone money of Yap, which is to be discussed in the next
section.
iii) Bismarck Archipelago (further to the east of New Guinea)
Although both Einzig (72) and Quiggin (149) differentiate
between the Gazelle Peninsula, where the shell money is called
tambu, and the Duke of York Islands, where the shell money is
called diwara, neither seems to distinguish between these two
differently named currencies. According to Einzig, diwara is used
for 'every kind of purchase, from the largest to the smallest'
(76), as well as 'payment of bride wealth, and also fines, ransom,
and blood money' (77). Quiggin writes that diwara can, among other
things, be used to pay for murders, fines, and adultery, and that
theft of it is the greatest of all crimes, and is punishable by
death (which can be reversed, of course, with enough diwara (152).
However, being that I was sufficiently interested, I tried to find
a similar account of the same for tambu, and have as yet been
unable to do so.
In Capitalism, Primitive and Modern (1968), T. Scarlett
Epstein explains that the Tolai, residents of the Gazelle
Peninsula, accumulate tambu for conspicuous display, and that it is
the central component of gaining power and prestige in the area
(25-6). She also explains that tambu is used extensively for
bridewealth and mortuary rites, and that the supply is strictly
controlled by leaders; the importation of tambu requires the
permission of the chiefs (26). In his book Vunamami (1970),
Richard F. Salisbury explains that tambu is used as a general
medium for interactions, for weddings, ceremonial dances, and
funerals, and also greatly emphasizes the social importance of the
possession of tambu (287-295). But nowhere could I find any
reference to the payment of fines with tambu.
iv)
The Solomon Islands (to the north-east)
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Einzig tells us that on Bougainville and Buka Islands, the
shell currency is used in a similar fashion to the diwara of the
Bismarck Archipelago; for bride money, pigs, as compensation for
theft in return for the release of the culprit (56). He further
explains that in the South-eastern Solomon Islands, shell money is
used for bride price, blood money, the purchase of large objects,
the payment on fees and fines, and redemptive offerings to spirits
(57). Few details of the use of shell money are given for the
neighbouring Banks' Islands; he spends most of his time discussing
the odd tribal rule of being able to impose a loan on an unwilling
debtor at 100% interest, done to raise funds primarily for the
entrance into secret societies. The use of shell money in another
neighbouring island, Buin, is discussed by Richard C. Thurnwald in
his article, 'Pigs and Currency in Buin', in Tribal and Peasant
Economies (1967). There he writes that the shell money abuta is
used in Buin for blood money (231), gifts of friendship, payments
for injuries and adultery, payments to rainmakers, and marriage
payments, as well a general means of exchange (239-40)
v)
Rossel Island
Finally we come to the shell currency of Rossel Island. The
primitive currency on this island is always discussed in isolation,
presumably due to the fact that the system there is particularly
different from any other system of shell currency in Oceania. On
Rossel Island, there are twenty two different forms of money, each
capable of being used for specific well-defined purpose. They can
be subdivided into nko and ndap, the latter being more valuable
than the former. Nko shells cannot be traded for each other, since
each buys different things and hence can be ordered in importance
(the economist Armstrong who first studied the system numbered the
nko shells 1 to 18, although the natives do not do so themselves
explicitly). However, an intricate credit system has arisen so
that a nko shell that is possessed can be loaned at interest in
order to obtain another that is wanted. This cannot be done for
ndap shells, however. Unfortunately, none of the three or four
sources that I checked seemed to have a very good description of
the system, and all appear to rely entirely on Armstrong's account
of it, so I'm not altogether sure what each of these shells are
used for. It appears that nko shells are more used for common
consumer goods, while ndap shells for more ceremonial exchanges,
such as bride-money, but I cannot figure out how I get a hold of the
right shell if I want to marry the well-rounded Wumashabee over
there, and I need shell number 20 to do it.
The Stones of Yap
Although I had wanted to spend a greater amount of time
explaining the operation of this rather original monetary system,
time constraints do not permit me to go into as much detail as I
12
had intended. If you are sufficiently interested, this is yet
another possible course of further investigation.
However, what have already discovered about this unique form
of money should, at least for the present, be sufficient to be
considered noteworthy. Einzig tells us that the primary function
of these stones is ornamental, as they bring considerable prestige
to the owner, and that they serve as a limited medium of exchange;
given their size and value, they are mostly used for larger
purchases. He also tells us that they are used as a standard of
deferred payment, for political payments between Yapese tribes, and
payment of levies. He claims, however, that 'there is absolutely
no practical non-monetary use for the stone money of Yap.'(Einzig,
37-40)
Although this is certainly the case at present, there are
claims that it is quite possible that there had once been some
practical non-monetary use for them. Quiggin (144) suggests that
they might possibly have been used to make stone club-heads.
Further, in his/her article 'Yapese Politics, Yapese Money, and the
Sawei Tribute Network before WW I', in The Journal of Pacific
History, M. L. Berg states that 'aragonite had long been mined on
Pelew' before the arrival of the Yapese (152), it seems credible to
assert that this material was useful to someone at some time in the
past. Further research would be useful in making these statements
less wishy-washy.
In his book entitled Yap : Political Leadership and Cultural
Change in an Island Society, Lingenfelter relates that thefts may
be fined in either stone money (fei) or shell money (gau) (115),
but states elsewhere that :
In cases of murder or adultery when the offender's life
is in serious danger, he may run to the house of the
chief and request refuge. [...] He takes shell money of
considerable value to the chief-of-young-men receives the
shell money. (116)
Given the importance of stone money on Yap, it seems a little
strange that this could only be done in shell money. Perhaps in
situations requiring haste shell money is more convenient. But
given the fact that there were, at one time, apparently two
distinct areas of the island vying for political power, one with
stone money and the other with shell money, it seems more than a
little likely that stone money was, at one time or another, a
generally accepted means of payment for fines and reparations.
I also looked at The Demysitification of Yap by David Labby,
but didn't find that it demystified anything and didn't provide a
succinct discussion of the stone money, so I put it down
Other Relevant and/or Interesting Stuff I Found
Jacques Melitz (Tulane), 'The Polanyi School of Anthropology on
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Money : An Economist's View', in American Anthropologist (1970).
A clever article responding to Polani and Dalton, arguing that
according to their definition, not only primitive but also modern
money should be regarded as 'special-purpose' money. It's quite a
long article and so I didn't read it all, just enough to get the
general idea and figure out that it wasn't going to get me too far.
But I'd be interested in reading it if you'd like me too.
C. A. Gregory (Australian National University), 'Cowries and
Conquest : Towards a Subalternate Quality Theory of Money', in ??
(Post 1989).
Not convinced that the quantity theory of money is really
explaining what is going on in primitive countries. He seems to
have the idea that at the beginning, any primitive money is special
purpose money in the Polanyi School sense, but most exchanges are
non-monetary transactions (commodity for commodity). It is from
contact from foreign white traders that everybody became money and
power hungry, and whence from money originated; hence money is a
standard of value created by the state.
In the beginning we had had the forage and we foraged
things. [...] We had no cowry-money (akwa). If you
went to the market you took beans in order to exchange
them for sweet potatoes. You exchanged something
specific fot something else. Then the king brought the
cowry-money. (Oral history from a native relayed by
Gregory)
A. R. Burns, Money and Monetary Policy in Early Times (1965).
A book primarily dealing with post primitive (i.e. coined)
monies, so mainly off topic, but the first chapter entitled 'Before
the Introduction of Coins' is pretty interesting. There he
explains that the origin of all money is due to its value as a
commodity, and that it was from this basic principle that coinage
developed. I find his explanation convincing, but unable to
account for the stone money of Yap. Also the apparently most
useful text if you are interested in looking into the rise of token
coinage.
Not Particularly Relevant
John Connell, 'The Bougainville Connection', in Oceania (Dec 1977).
Discusses the 'is this stuff really money' controversy, and
decides for the affirmative. Also provides a lengthy discussion of
what is presently occurring with the trade of shell money on the
Islands of Bougainville, explaining that its use is declining
significantly and being replaced with western currency, although
moreso in some places than others. Particularly useful for finding
references (especially Einzig and Quiggin).
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Francois R. Velde (FRB of Chicago), 'Lessons from the History of
Money', in Economic Perspectives (Post 1996).
Starts from a position that all money was originally commodity
money, and explain the transition to a purely fiat system. Not too
useful, except for the fact that he gives some good reason for why
the existence of a purely fiat system, unbacked by some sort of
government, would be unlikely.
R. F. Salisbury, From Stone to Steel (1962).
A field economist writing a book about technological
transitions in New Guinea. After quite a bit of digging, I finally
found that the most common means of exchange is nothing other than
food; not even at the shell trading stage.
Marshall Sahlins (University of Michigan), Primitive Economics,
(1972).
Despite its rather promising title, of very little value to
the present discussion. Entitling the first chapter 'The Original
Affluent Society', he appears to want to argue that primitive
tribes probably weren't anywhere near as badly off as we suspect;
unencumbered by material possessions as we are, they were not
subject to the social pressures of materialism that we are burdened
by, and hence were in a much more relevant sense free. Also
includes a discussion of what should be included within the rubric
of 'primitive money', but doesn't add a whole lot of clarity to the
problem. A good Marxist critique of capitalist materialism, but
not exactly what you are looking for.
M. I. Finley, The Ancient Economy (1973)
Deals with the economies of the Greco-Roman world, where
currency already existed. Looks interesting, but completely
irrelevant. Maybe useful for a term paper.
Time
internet searching - 2
primary document research -2
reading - 4.5
secondary document research - 3.5
reading - 10.5
reading/typing notes - 9.5
typing 5.5
tertiary document research - 2.5
reading - 6.5
reading/typing - 2
typing - 4
really annoying bullshit at the end - 2
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