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twisting the gift: translating precolonial into colonial exchanges in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia
Author(s) -
ARAGON LORRAINE V.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1996.23.1.02a00030
Subject(s) - colonialism , hierarchy , politics , power (physics) , political science , history , economy , ethnology , political economy , sociology , economics , law , physics , quantum mechanics
In this article I reexamine the relationship between gift giving and hierarchy using data about early‐20th‐century colonial contacts in western Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Dutch colonial officials and European missionaries disrupted prior community and regional exchange patterns and initiated strategic policies of asymmetric interethnic gift giving that elevated European missionaries and officials as political and spiritual sources of power.